In the race to dominate the liquid staking space, each major blockchain has its own 'king': Ethereum has Lido, Solana has Jito

And now, Polkadot has Bifrost 🏆

With over 100 million USD TVL and holding over 60% market share of LST on Polkadot, Bifrost was not the first to arrive but has quietly built its own path to the throne.

So what propelled Bifrost from a latecomer to the number one liquid staking platform on Polkadot? Let's look back at this journey.

⚙️ Humble Beginnings on Kusama


Bifrost started in July 2021 when they won the Kusama parachain auction thanks to a crowdloan of over 140,000 KSM. The Bifrost network was officially connected to Kusama and launched the Staking Liquidity Protocol (SLP) alongside the test token vETH.

This phase was not flashy, but it was a crucially solid foundation.

🚀 Scaling Up: Transitioning to Polkadot


From 2022 to 2023, Bifrost secured a parachain on Polkadot and began to expand aggressively:
Launched 6 types of vToken: vKSM, vDOT, vMOVR, vGLMR, vASTR, vBNC
Shifted most activities to Polkadot
Organized incentive campaigns like Rainbow Boost
The result? vKSM increased from 50K to a peak of 500K minted tokens. Currently maintaining a stable level of over 350K and holds over 60% market share of KSM LST.

🧠 Why Are vTokens Preferred?

Most LSTs simply help you stake while maintaining liquidity. Bifrost is different; they turn vTokens into a truly flexible financial product ecosystem, deeply integrated into DeFi.

🔒 1. Optimize Profits & Protect Against Slashing

Automatically selects the optimal validator for profit
If slashed, the BNC Vault will cover the losses for users

🗳 2. Retain Governance Rights


Holders of vDOT and vKSM can still participate in voting for OpenGov
Staking while having a voice in the ecosystem, this is the double benefit.

🧩 3. Real-World Applications in DeFi


In the Bifrost DApp, you can:
Swap: Trade vDOT ↔ DOT on Moonbeam, Astar, Hydration
Earn: Provide liquidity (LP) and receive farming rewards
Lending: Deposit vDOT on Interlay to earn interest
Borrow: Collateralize vDOT to borrow DOT or iBTC
Loop: Stake → borrow → stake → repeat to amplify profits
Loopstake: Leverage staking up to 4x, just with 1 click
In other words: What DOT can do, vDOT can do all — and even more.


🧬 Ultimate Weapon: Omnichain Architecture

This is the 'secret' that allows Bifrost to outpace its competitors.
Instead of deploying contracts on each chain, Bifrost chose to focus everything on its own parachain. Users on any chain can mint, redeem, and swap remotely without needing to manually switch chains.

This structure is known as Omnichain Architecture, providing numerous benefits:
Smooth, seamless experience
No time wasted on bridging
Combines multiple sources of cross-chain yield

🧑‍🍳 Example: vMANTA


When Manta Network launched its 2-chain ecosystem (Substrate + EVM), Bifrost was the only LST provider capable of serving both simultaneously. The result? vMANTA captured over 94% of LST market share in Manta's HST.

🌍 Next Steps: Expanding Beyond Polkadot

Although Bifrost was born from Polkadot, their future is multichain.
As cross-chain infrastructures continue to develop, along with the trends of chain abstraction and DeFi by intent, Bifrost's omnichain architecture will become the ideal foundation for next-generation staking protocols — not only in Polkadot but also in Ethereum, Cosmos, and beyond.