What’s Up Bitcoin: Latest Happenings in Bitcoin and BTCFi

We’re back again with the ninth instalment of “What’s Up Bitcoin,” our series to keep our followers up-to-date with the highlights of what’s happening in the Bitcoin ecosystem over the past few weeks! 🦾🧵👇

Bitcoin DeFi Ecosystem Updates with Bitcoin Ecosystem

The best place to start is with a quick overview from our friends at Bitcoin ecosystem.

The Bitcoin ecosystem is witnessing a significant increase in developer activity within BTCFi. This surge is introducing smart contract capabilities, rollups, and innovative developer tools, positioning #Bitcoin DeFi as a prime opportunity for growth in 2025. 💪

A big W for the vision of hyperbitcoinization ⚡️

🟧The #Bitcoin ecosystem is experiencing a surge in developer activity, with a significant shift towards #Bitcoin DeFi. Smart contract capabilities, rollups, and new developer tools are rapidly emerging, making #Bitcoin DeFi a prime opportunity in 2025.@build_on_bob, with their… pic.twitter.com/uZ2jpZB1Nv

— Bitcoin Ecosystem (@BitcoinEcoTK) February 18, 2025

B² Network Announced Multiple Partnerships

B² Network is on a spree, announcing multiple partnerships, which means:
– Improved scalability and lower fees
– New use cases for BTCFi
– Less fragmentation of liquidity

nice work fren! 💯

We’re thrilled to announce the collaboration between the B² Network and @AethirCloud!

Aethir will be our exclusive GPU partner, powering the infrastructure behind the growing AI innovation on Bitcoin.

Together, we’ll be supporting AI builders on the B² network, providing them… pic.twitter.com/lgd3btmNkN

— B² Network | BTC Layer2 (@BSquaredNetwork) February 20, 2025

CoreDAO Has Unveiled lstBTC

In a strategic partnership with Maple Finance and custodians BitGo, Copper, and Hex Trust, CoreDAO has unveiled lstBTC, an innovative liquidity staking token for Bitcoin that targets institutional investors.

Introducing lstBTC:
• Real yield
• Secure
• Liquid
• Built for institutions

Coming soon. pic.twitter.com/qUnxipbaze

— Core DAO 🔶 (@Coredao_Org) February 17, 2025

Merlin’s POS Period 2 went LIVE!🔥

Merlin Chain sold out Period 1 of their POS Prestage in just 26 minutes.

Safe to say that BTCFi is only getting warmed up.💯

Period 2 of Merlin Chain’s PoS Prestage goes LIVE in just minutes!

After Period 1 sold out in just 26 minutes, the next vault is about to OPEN!

Period 2: 50% APR (20M $MERL Cap Vault) – The Arcane Circle Expands (17th Feb 2pm to 24th Feb 1.59pm GMT)

More rewards. More… https://t.co/wYlKHjgZaj pic.twitter.com/jbqGyC0ewB

— Merlin Chain (@MerlinLayer2) February 17, 2025

Stacks Introduced $sBTC

Route2FI highlighted how the Nakamoto upgrade for Stacks introduced $sBTC which can be used in DeFi.

With the upgrade, transaction speed for BTC is now reduced from 10 minutes to 5 seconds.⚡️

The new Nakamoto upgrade for Stacks introduced $sBTC which can be used in DeFi. $sBTC recently launched with a 1,000 $BTC cap (about $100 million), which filled quickly because of the 10% APY on BTC.

The ultimate goal for Stacks was to create a Solana-like Bitcoin L2 called… https://t.co/jdbjJ2Lu9p pic.twitter.com/Uuo0D82Uhg

— Route 2 FI (@Route2FI) February 3, 2025

Foundry Now Merge Mining Rootstock

Exciting news for Bitcoin: With Foundry, the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool, now merge mining Rootstock and over 80% of Bitcoin’s hash rate securing it, the network’s security has been dramatically enhanced. 💪

Big news for Bitcoin: Foundry, the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool, is now merge mining Rootstock!

With over 80% of Bitcoin's total hash rate securing Rootstock, Bitcoin’s DeFi layer just got even stronger.

Welcome to the family @FoundryServices. pic.twitter.com/VRiuTF7vsF

— Rootstock (@rootstock_io) February 6, 2025

About Persistence One

Persistence One is building the BTCFi Liquidity Hub, enabling fast, near zero-slippage swaps for XPRT, BTC-variants, and BTCfi tokens on Persistence DEX.

BTCFi’s rapid growth has created multiple BTC-related assets, making fragmentation a big challenge. Persistence One will provide a single liquidity hub, simplifying value transfer across the Bitcoin ecosystem.

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