Bitlayer accounts for 31% of all complete worth locked (TVL), versus Merlin’s 16%.
Bitcoin Layer 2 Bitlayer has claimed the highest spot within the Bitcoin scaling networks rank, by way of complete worth locked (TVL).
Bitlayer, a Layer 2 answer that faucets into the BitVM paradigm which permits for Turing-completeness just like Ethereum, now accounts for 31% of all the sector’s TVL with $391 million, overtaking Merlin, the earlier chief.
Belongings held within the Bitlayer community have elevated by greater than tenfold up to now two months, whereas Merlin’s have dropped by 50% to $196 million, or 16% of the Bitcoin Layer 2 sector.
Rootstock and CORE, the third and fourth-largest scaling networks, have 14% and 13% respectively, each with round $170 million in TVL.
Based on Bitlayer’s co-founder, Charlie Hu, progress is pushed largely by the launch of a number of dapps on the community, together with pStake, a liquid staking protocol, and Bedrock, a restaking protocol.
Bitlayer’s $11 million Sequence A spherical led by Franklin Templeton introduced final week additionally drove consideration to the undertaking.
As well as, the Layer 2 has an ongoing rewards marketing campaign referred to as the Racer Heart, which distributes tokens, NFTs and badges.
“Bitlayer has had killer execution,” stated Bob Bodily, CEO of Bioniq, an Ordinals market. “Charlie is a machine,” he instructed The Defiant, and in addition referenced the undertaking’s burgeoning partnerships, with “tons of builders and protocols approaching their chain and doing issues.”
Bodily additionally stated that Bitlayer’s ecosystem work is “so implausible.”
Bitcoin DeFi Slumps
However as Bitlayer’s TVL grows, the general Decentralized Finance ecosystem in Bitcoin is slumping. Bitcoin TVL surged in April to an all-time excessive of $1.1 billion in June, however belongings have since plunged to $680 million. The 40% drop is regardless of the thrill round Bitcoin Season 2.
Bodily stated that loads of BTC holders who’re placing their belongings to work are going to Ethereum.
“I say Ethereum is probably the most profitable Bitcoin facet chain of all time,” he stated, pointing to WBTC’s TVL which sits at a whopping $9.9 billion.
Nonetheless, builders are more and more flocking to Bitcoin because of the looks of Ordinals, a protocol launched in early 2023 that permits for non-financial knowledge to be inscribed on Bitcoin, very similar to NFTs on Ethereum.
And because of nascent paradigms like BitVM, upgrades like Taproot, and the potential of scripts like OP_CAT to be reintroduced, the expansion of the Bitcoin ecosystem ought to proceed to drive curiosity.
