Yesterday, the Season 1 airdrop rules were announced, just before the TGE. How to participate in Yala?
Written by: Alex Liu, Foresight News
The Bitcoin native liquidity protocol Yala announced its Season 1 airdrop details last night, with airdrop claims opening on TGE day. After launching on the Solana mainnet in May, the Solana Chinese community revealed that Yala will soon hold its TGE. What is Yala's background, what are the protocol principles, how is Season 1 allocated, and how to participate in the future?
Yala is a Bitcoin native liquidity protocol that mints stablecoin YU by over-collateralizing BTC on the Bitcoin chain, linking the value of Bitcoin with multi-chain DeFi and real-world asset (RWA) yields. The protocol aims to allow Bitcoin holders to participate in the DeFi and RWA ecosystem without relinquishing ownership of their assets, thereby unlocking the long 'idle' value of Bitcoin.
Financing situation
Yala completed a seed round financing of $8 million in October 2024, co-led by Polychain Capital and Ethereal Ventures. Other participating investors include Galaxy Vision Hill (Galaxy Digital), Amber Group, HashKey Capital, ABCDE Capital, Anagram, Ambush Capital, GeekCartel, L2 Iterative Ventures, SatoshiLab, UpHonest Capital, UTXO Management, 280 Capital, and more.
The team stated that this round of funding will primarily be used to expand the technology and product team, enhance security, and support various preparations before the mainnet launch. In addition, the founding team of Yala disclosed that there is a commitment of over 2,000 BTC for collateral liquidity in the early stages of the protocol, laying the foundation for the early stable operation of the platform.
In terms of strategic cooperation, Yala has joined the Circle Alliance Program and will explore the application scenarios of USDC in the Bitcoin ecosystem together with other protocols and institutions. Thanks to the cooperation with Circle, holders can exchange YU stablecoins for USDC on a 1:1 basis, providing YU with trust backing through USDC's wide acceptance and compliance.
Yala has also reached a strategic partnership with the Bitcoin layer 2 network Stacks to integrate YU into Stacks' lending, staking, and insurance protocols, including Bitflow, Alex, Velar, Zest, etc., to enhance the liquidity and stability of the Stacks ecosystem. In July this year, Yala collaborated with the crypto payment gateway Alchemy Pay to launch the Yeti Card, allowing Bitcoin holders to make global purchases using YU earnings.
Team background
Yala team members span across the crypto and traditional finance sectors. According to official information, the founders of Yala include former MakerDAO protocol architects, former Circle stablecoin engineers, Microsoft cloud infrastructure experts, and former derivatives traders from Capital One. The team also gathers talents from institutions like Lido, Binance Labs, Circle, Microsoft, Alchemy Pay, etc. Among them, co-founder and COO Kai-Tai Chan has worked at Binance and APX Finance and has an MBA background from Harvard Business School, along with rich entrepreneurial experience.
Protocol features
Yala adopts a modular design, with the core divided into several interconnected parts: Yala Bridge, Yala Network (MetaMint), and different user modes.
First, users deposit BTC through the Yala Bridge and convert it into yBTC, which is a tokenized representation of Bitcoin (similar to wrapped tokens but generated within the Yala ecosystem) to serve as collateral for subsequent operations. After receiving yBTC, users can directly mint YU stablecoins on their target chains (such as Ethereum, Solana, etc.) through the MetaMint module and participate in staking, lending, and other DeFi activities on each chain.
MetaMint simplifies the cross-chain process—users can deposit BTC once and obtain YU on other chains with 'one click', without needing to exchange stablecoins on an exchange first. Additionally, Yala offers a Lite Mode for ordinary users to simplify operations and earn stable returns, while professional users can access advanced DeFi structured products like Babylon and Ethena, obtaining additional returns while maintaining BTC exposure.
Yala's stablecoin YU is pegged to the US dollar and fully collateralized by Bitcoin. Compared to traditional centralized stablecoins, YU has multi-chain compatibility and a profit-sharing mechanism: it can be used on multiple chains such as Ethereum and Solana and generates earnings for holders through staking, lending, and other activities. It maintains the stability of YU through various means such as over-collateralization, stable fees, and liquidation mechanisms. Unlike many stablecoins that rely on third-party custody, Yala distributes system earnings to YU holders, allowing them to genuinely earn income from the protocol's operations.
In its design philosophy, Yala emphasizes a balance between decentralization and security. It is based on the most resilient off-chain state of Bitcoin, leveraging the Ordinals protocol to introduce programmability, and ensuring security through mechanisms like a federated indexer network and multi-signature vaults. This means Yala does not need to centralize BTC asset custody but uses a decentralized indexer network off-chain to record the states of yBTC and YU, which can further decentralize in the future.
The team claims that the core of the Yala protocol is 'true self-sovereignty': all BTC is always held on the Bitcoin mainnet, allowing users to maintain self-custody and thus avoid centralization risks. The project officially summarizes its three pillars as: security (BTC remains off-chain, trust-minimized architecture), institutional-grade channels (RWA yield opportunities open to institutions and retail), and transparent risk management (auditable collateral and strategies).
In terms of user experience and ecosystem integration, Yala has also introduced several innovative highlights. For example, it launched the PayFi Universe concept, using the Yeti Card crypto card to directly use Bitcoin earnings for everyday spending. The Yeti Card supports the global Visa/Mastercard network and is compatible with mobile payment methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay. Users can 'earn interest on holdings and spend interest', allowing them to pay for coffee, shopping, and other daily expenses without selling their BTC principal.
In addition, the Yala platform introduces an AI yield agent (Yay-Agent) that integrates DeFi protocols and RWA products to achieve 24/7 automated yield, providing users with stable annualized returns (for example, Lite Mode offers a fixed return of 12%). Yala's DeFi marketplace allows users to access liquidity protocols like Raydium and Kamino on Solana across chains within the same interface, earning trading fees and compound rewards with YU, and obtaining additional incentives through Berries points.
How to participate
Taking the Ethereum mainnet as an example, users can deposit Bitcoin into the protocol via the Yala Bridge to receive an equivalent tokenized Bitcoin. Next, users can use yBTC as collateral to mint YU stablecoins on Ethereum or other supported chains with one click through the MetaMint function. Once minted, YU is directly deposited into the user's EVM chain wallet or Solana wallet. Users can then deposit YU into the protocol's stable pool to earn staking rewards or provide liquidity in the DeFi market (such as contributing to the YU/USDC pool on Raydium).
All on-chain activities will generate rewards—users earn YU while also receiving berry points (Berries) given by the platform. These points represent the user's ecological contribution and can be used in the future to exchange for rewards or participate in upcoming airdrops. Currently, users can also participate in activities like 'team competitions', forming teams to jointly enter lotteries and further accumulate points.
Yala has launched various community incentive activities, including 'Yeti Yell'. Users can participate in activities, create content, or complete official tasks to earn additional rewards. At the same time, Yala has issued a limited number of Soul-Bound NFTs (Soul-Bound Yetis) as a certificate of honor for early users and contributors. The current phase 0 of this NFT has ended, with a total of 1500 NFTs minted. Phases 1 and 2 will each have 3000 and 5500 NFTs available for minting, respectively, targeting top-ranking users and ecological participants on the testnet and mainnet. These phases have not yet been opened.
Season 1 Airdrop
The total amount for this round of airdrops is 34 million YALA, accounting for 3.4% of the total supply. The reward targets include participants from both the mainnet and testnet, content contributors, and early supporters, with a claiming period of 1 month. The snapshot date is July 8, 2025, with specific allocations as follows:
Mainnet Berries contributors: 30 million YALA; Mainnet Ice Berries (social and interactive tasks) contributors: 618,000; Testnet Berries participants: 322,000; Yeti Footprints content/research/feedback/technical contributors: 3 million; Yala Bonus Rewards special reward pool for early supporters: 60,000. Users can check their eligibility for claims on the website. Unclaimed portions will be automatically reclaimed for future airdrops. The second quarterly airdrop event has already begun.
