#Texas , USA – June 11, 2025 – Chainwire
Threshold Network has officially launched tBTC on Starknet, enabling Bitcoin holders to engage in decentralized finance (DeFi) at a fraction of traditional transaction costs. This move allows users to mint tBTC—a decentralized, trust-minimized, Bitcoin-backed asset—directly on Starknet, converting
$BTC into usable DeFi capital while maintaining full self-custody.
With Bitcoin's average mainnet transaction fees currently at $1.49 (7-day average, June 2025), Starknet’s sub-cent costs—just $0.01 per transaction—provide a dramatically more efficient alternative. Users can now trade, lend, borrow, and implement high-frequency strategies with Bitcoin in a cost-effective and scalable environment.
> “BTC on Bitcoin Mainnet is like gold bars in a vault: valuable but unusable,” said MacLane Wilkison, Co-Founder of Threshold Labs. “At $0.01 per transaction on Starknet, Bitcoin transforms from a passive store of value to a powerful tool for DeFi—from micro-transactions to large-scale trading.”
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Addressing Bitcoin DeFi’s Core Challenges
Bitcoin Mainnet Limitations (June 2025):
Avg. transaction fee: $1.49
Congestion peak (Apr 2024): $91.89
Confirmation time: 10–60 minutes
Impact: DeFi operations are economically unviable; a $100 transaction costs ~1.5%.
tBTC on Starknet: A New Paradigm
Transaction fees: $0.01
Finality: Instant
Throughput: 857 TPS (tested)
Impact: Bitcoin becomes efficient working capital for on-chain activity.
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What’s Live & What’s Next
Live at Launch:
DEX Trading on Ekubo: Users can trade tBTC across supported pairs on native Starknet DEXs, enabling high-speed, low-slippage execution.
Coming Soon:
tBTC Lending via Vesu: Users will soon be able to borrow against tBTC positions without forfeiting custody—similar to tBTC’s success on Ethereum, where over 25% of its supply is locked in Aave.
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Key Use Cases for tBTC on Starknet
Trade & Borrow: Engage in cost-effective strategies without leaving the Starknet ecosystem.
Liquidity Provision: Optimize yield with minimal rebalancing costs.
Collateral Use: Leverage Bitcoin as loan collateral while retaining ownership.
Streaming Payments: Enable per-second Bitcoin-backed transactions.
Smart Contract Automation: Integrate BTC into automated DeFi workflows.
Bitcoin-Powered Gaming: Facilitate real-time, low-cost microtransactions for gaming and digital economies.
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Future Roadmap
Perpetuals & CDPs: Integration with perpetual DEXs and collateralized debt protocols will bring leverage and risk management tools to BTC holders.
Yield Vaults: Simplified liquidity vaults to increase returns and accessibility.
Oracles & Liquidity Infrastructure: Strategic partnerships will ensure accurate pricing and optimal capital deployment.
> “This fundamentally changes Bitcoin's role in DeFi,” said Damian Chen, Head of Growth at the Starknet Foundation. “Developers can now revisit and build what high fees once made impossible. Bitcoin at scale is now a reality.”
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Security and Self-Custody
Unlike custodial wrapped Bitcoin products, tBTC employs threshold cryptography, distributing security across multiple independent signers. This decentralized architecture eliminates the need for centralized custodians or KYC, preserving Bitcoin’s foundational ethos of self-sovereignty.
Starknet’s ZK infrastructure enhances this model, using STARK proofs to compress thousands of transactions into a single proof, enabling 857 TPS without compromising Ethereum-level security.
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How to Access tBTC on Starknet
1. Direct BTC to tBTC Minting on Starknet
Mint tBTC directly through the Threshold UI.
2. Bridge Existing tBTC from Ethereum L1
Use StarkGate to transfer tBTC to Starknet.
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Starknet’s Growing Ecosystem
With $547 million in TVL, 193 active protocols, and over 11,000 daily users, Starknet continues to establish itself as a leading destination for scalable DeFi. The integration of tBTC marks a major step toward a Bitcoin-Ethereum hybrid economy, combining Bitcoin’s liquidity with Starknet’s performance.
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Market Outlook
Despite a $2.1 trillion market cap, Bitcoin’s share in DeFi remains below 0.3%, with only $6.3 billion in decentralized applications (DefiLlama, June 2025). With tBTC’s trust-minimized design and Starknet’s scalability, analysts project 10–15x growth potential for Bitcoin’s role in DeFi, as capital shifts from passive storage to composable on-chain utility.
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About Threshold Network
Threshold Network powers tBTC, the leading decentralized, fully-backed Bitcoin asset for DeFi. With a 51-of-100 signer model and no custodians, Threshold enables Bitcoin mobility across Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, BOB, and now Starknet. Since 2020, the protocol has secured $450M+ TVL and $3.6B in bridge volume.
About Starknet
#STARKNET is a permissionless, decentralized zero-knowledge rollup developed by StarkWare, offering fast finality, low fees, and robust composability. Built on $STARK proofs, Starknet is engineered for scalable and secure Web3 applications.