Bitcoin’s decentralized application (DApp) ecosystem is experiencing a resurgence thanks to the introduction of native protocols like Ordinals and Inscriptions. One project, SolvBTC, a yield-generating protocol, has gained significant traction, accumulating a total value locked (TVL) of $700 million from its yield-bearing Bitcoin (BTC) minted on Arbitrum, Merlin, and BNB Smart Chain. SolvBTC recently surpassed 10,000 BTC staked and attracted over 92,000 participants since its launch earlier this month.
SolvBTC founder Ryan Chow emphasized the importance of the liquidity revolution of Bitcoin for the true explosion of BTCFi. He stated that SolvBTC would soon be launched and connected to additional networks, bridging BTC users, chains, and protocols.
SolvBTC utilizes BTC as collateral and sources staking and decentralized finance (DeFi) yields from blockchains like Ethereum, Arbitrum, Merlin, and BNB Smart Chain. The protocol estimates that it can generate annual returns of 5%–10% on users’ BTC deposits.
In other news, Bitcoin layer-2 solution BEVM received an undisclosed investment from Chinese Bitcoin mining rig manufacturer Bitmain. BEVM plans to explore Bitcoin hash rate and the proof-of-work (PoW) ecosystem’s application on its platform, facilitating the migration of PoW hash rate assets and a substantial quantity of BTC to BEVM. Since its mainnet launch on March 28, BEVM has gained over 700,000 user addresses and hosts more than 30 ecosystem projects. The platform is currently valued at $200 million.
Additionally, Bitcoin decentralized exchange (DEX) Orders Exchange and sidechain MicroVisionChain announced their 2024 roadmap. Orders Exchange plans to integrate with the Web3 wallets of two major exchanges and build a Bitcoin nonfungible tokens marketplace. Previously, Orders Exchange integrated with the Bitcoin Runes protocol and constructed a Bitcoin asset bridge with MicroVisionChain.
Despite a market sell-off, the Bitcoin Ordinals market has expanded to $2.3 billion, partly due to ecosystem development, memecoin frenzy, and listings on major exchanges like Binance. BRC-20 tokens, which reached a milestone of $1 billion in market capitalization on May 9, 2023, have played a significant role in this growth.
In related news, Hong Kong Bitcoin and Ether ETFs had a challenging debut on their first day of trading.