On July 15, Bitlayer's Summer Conference 2025 officially unveiled, themed 'The Ultimate Bitcoin DeFi Infrastructure'. Co-founders Kevin He and Charlie Hu systematically disclosed Bitlayer's latest technological progress and product roadmap for the first time: the launch of BitVM Bridge mainnet Beta, the release of the Bitlayer Network 2.0 white paper, and a preview of the V3 architecture. This team, with BitVM as its core competitiveness, has thrown out an imaginative vision to redefine Bitlayer and create the ultimate BTCFi infrastructure.
This press conference not only showcased Bitlayer's latest business landscape but also publicly revealed its five-year strategic plan: the dual-driven approach of Bitlayer Network and BitVM Bridge, corresponding to the two core tracks of Bitcoin Layer 2 network and BTC bridging solutions, catering to differentiated market demands while resonating with each other, jointly painting a new picture of decentralized finance anchored by Bitcoin.
This article will combine the information from this online conference and project progress to deeply analyze the planning and industry changes behind the new Bitlayer.
Bitlayer Bridge mainnet Beta officially launched
BitVM Bridge is built on an advanced BitVM smart contract framework for Bitcoin bridging technology. Compared to early BTC bridging technologies, the significant feature of BitVM Bridge is its trust-minimized architecture. By leveraging the innovative BitVM smart contract framework, BitVM Bridge introduces a powerful dispute resolution and fraud prevention system to ensure the secure transfer of user assets, characterized by decentralized custody and no soft forks.
As a secure and trust-minimized representation of Bitcoin in a programmable environment, the YBTC token minted through the BitVM Bridge maintains a strict 1:1 peg with Bitcoin and will be widely applicable in Bitlayer Rollup or other supported programmable environments.
Currently, BitVM Bridge has reached strategic cooperation with leading public chains and protocols such as Sui, Arbitrum, Base, Cardano, and Plume to jointly promote the integration and ecological cooperation of BitVM Bridge and YBTC. In addition, Bitlayer has established strategic partnerships with three Bitcoin mining pools: Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool, with the relevant mining pools' APIs officially supporting real-time NSTs from BitVM Bridge and achieving a complete execution process.
With the official launch of the BitVM Bridge mainnet Beta version, it will soon enter the mainnet phase, announcing a series of measures such as the security committee, test activities, etc., ultimately supporting users to bridge Bitcoin to other ecosystems in a trust-minimized manner, and exploring more gain strategies through Bitcoin exchange, lending, and staking interest in various DeFi scenarios.
This is the evolution route of Bitlayer Network
If BitVM Bridge is a new business that Bitlayer is trying to expand, the Bitcoin Layer 2 ecosystem remains its most solid battlefield for users and the community.
At this press conference, Bitlayer simultaneously disclosed the Bitlayer Network 2.0 white paper, intending to fully upgrade based on the previous V1 PoS, officially entering the Rollup stage.
Specifically, the four core features that Bitlayer Network V2 will possess include:
- Bitcoin-level security: All state changes are verified on the Bitcoin chain through fraud proofs based on BitVM, anchoring its finality and security to the Bitcoin PoW system
- Sub-second transaction finality: Achieves real-time confirmations to meet the demands of high-frequency trading scenarios
- Decentralized Sequencer: A set of validators takes turns generating L2 blocks to ensure no single entity can manipulate or censor the network
- Escape pod function: When the L2 protocol is down or fails, users can still securely withdraw their assets to the Bitcoin L1 mainnet through this mechanism
Compared to other scaling solutions, Bitlayer Network V2 can achieve Bitcoin-level security while ensuring complete programmability. Its core architecture consists of three pillars: recursive proof and verification system, decentralized sequencer network, and emergency asset escape channel.
In the latest roadmap released by the team, Bitlayer Network V2 addresses the security and scalability issues of the Bitcoin Layer 2 network, while V3 aims to solve high-performance execution issues of the Layer 2 network. As the final form of Bitlayer Network, version V3 will focus on achieving the following four major goals: - Customizable high-performance native transaction engine: Capable of sub-millisecond processing latency, supporting large-scale institutional transaction execution - Horizontally scalable clustered system architecture: Supports bidirectional infinite expansion capacity for execution engines and application ecosystems - EVM-compatible high-performance parallel execution engine: Provides a high-performance computing environment for the ecosystem while achieving seamless interaction with the native engine - CEX-level user experience: Integrating sub-second latency, ultra-low costs, and DeFi composability
Strategic upgrade: From L2 to a full-stack BTCFi solution. Building on its previous Layer 2 business, Bitlayer has repositioned itself to simultaneously develop the latest generation of trust-minimized BTC cross-chain bridges based on BitVM and to build Bitcoin infrastructure projects that foster a thriving Layer 2 ecosystem, aiding broader builders in the development of BTCFi.
From a pure Bitcoin Layer 2 to a Bitcoin solution provider, Bitlayer's repositioning is both a response to market demand and a reflection of the industry's destination after a period of short-term hype: ultimately all will converge to meet user needs and generate real revenue.
As long as institutions and users are still looking for new gain opportunities, someone needs to fill the market gap to safely unlock the trillion-dollar value of BTC liquidity. With BitVM's technological first-mover advantage and existing ecosystem scale, Bitlayer is expected to become a key infrastructure for unlocking trillion-level Bitcoin liquidity.
In this wave of BTCFi, Bitlayer's ambitions are just beginning.