While Bitcoin was being ridiculed for "doing nothing but rise and fall," Bitlayer emerged with a set of "combinative punches": allowing Bitcoin to "make money while splitting" across major public chains, using black technology to boost transaction speeds to ten times that of Ethereum, and attracting $25 million in investment from traditional financial giants. What magic does this project possess that makes the entire crypto circle shout, "The DeFi era of Bitcoin has arrived"?

1. Bitcoin's "passive income necessity," Bitlayer has tapped into this trillion-dollar business

Bitcoin holders have been nearly driven crazy in recent years: with BTC in hand, besides "holding out for a double," there are hardly any reliable ways to make money. Storing on centralized platforms? The shadow of FTX's collapse hasn't dissipated; swapping for WBTC to play in DeFi? There's fear of multi-signature institutions pulling tricks. Data shows that out of the $13 trillion market cap of Bitcoin, less than 2% has participated in DeFi—not that they don't want to earn, but there's truly no safe pathway.

Bitlayer precisely hit two explosive points:

• Institutional funds are scrambling to enter: The US spot ETF sees daily net inflows of hundreds of millions, with public companies and banks hoarding Bitcoin, but these "regular troops" need compliant and transparent income-generating tools; they can't let Bitcoin "sleep" in wallets.

• Retail investors want simplicity and straightforwardness: ordinary users just want to know, how to directly stake BTC to earn interest? How to cross-chain to other ecosystems for yield farming? The emergence of Bitlayer is to package these demands into a "fool-proof service."

The current BTCFi market is like Ethereum DeFi in 2019—once the infrastructure is set up, funds will surge in like a tide. And Bitlayer stands right at the center of this wave.

2. Two powerful weapons! Bitlayer equipped Bitcoin with a "financial operating system"

BitVM bridge: Bitcoin's "secure passage"

Traditional Bitcoin cross-chain, simply put, is "handing over money to someone else for custody." WBTC relies on signatures from 21 institutions, and once a few collude, the user's BTC becomes someone else's possession. Bitlayer's BitVM bridge completely rewrites the rules:

• A bridge that doesn't touch money is a good bridge: Users lock BTC on the Bitcoin mainnet, and Bitlayer generates a 1:1 corresponding YBTC through cryptographic proof, without any institutional endorsement throughout. Even if all nodes of the bridge run away, users can unlock BTC from the mainnet with their private keys, providing a strong sense of security.

• The world's first to run the BitVM mainnet: While others are still testing in labs, Bitlayer has already made this technology run stably on the mainnet, allowing YBTC to cross-chain to ecosystems like Sui and Base, with transaction fees half that of WBTC and settlement times reduced from hours to seconds.

• YBTC is "the BTC that can make money": after cross-chain, it can be directly thrown into the lending pool (for example, borrowing USDC on Sui), doing liquidity mining, steadily earning an annual return of 5%-10%, and can switch back to BTC at any time, with every step on-chain verifiable.

Bitlayer network: Bitcoin's "high-speed engine"

The Bitcoin mainnet is as slow as an "elderly mobility scooter," processing only 7 transactions per second, and during high fee times, sending a transaction can cost dozens of dollars, making it impossible to support DeFi. The Bitlayer network has equipped it with a "high-speed engine":

• Rollup technology is a game changer: Transactions are processed on Bitlayer (capable of handling thousands per second), with final results recorded on the Bitcoin mainnet, enjoying both Bitcoin's security and Ethereum's speed, with transaction fees slashed to mere cents.

• Developers are ecstatic: EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) compatibility means DeFi protocols on Ethereum (like lending, swapping) do not need to modify code; they can directly copy and paste into Bitlayer and play with YBTC, greatly lowering the entry barrier for developers.

• Miners can share the pie too: Top mining pools like Antpool and F2Pool are collaborating with Bitlayer, allowing them to package Rollup transactions to earn extra fees, essentially turning Bitcoin miners from "accountants" into "shareholders of the DeFi ecosystem", providing strong motivation.

3. A powerful network of partnerships! Bitlayer's collaboration list intimidates competitors

Bitlayer's cooperation landscape, any area drawn is a "trump card":

• Major public chains are lining up to board: Base, Arbitrum, Sui, and Cardano have all opened their doors to Bitlayer, allowing YBTC to freely enter and exit these ecosystems' DeFi pools. For example, using YBTC to stake for loans on Base or doing stablecoin swaps on Cardano, instantly reaching hundreds of millions of users.

• Mining pool giants are personally getting involved: Antpool (the second-largest Bitcoin mining pool globally) and F2Pool (accounting for 10% of hash power) are not only providing technical support but also recommending users on their platforms to use Bitlayer, effectively opening a "fast track course to DeFi" for the Bitcoin mining community.

• Binance wallet is deeply integrated: The second phase of the "Booster" event is in full swing, where users can store YBTC in their Binance wallets and complete tasks to draw BTR tokens. Behind this is the leading exchange's early bet on the Bitlayer ecosystem; after all, who wouldn't want to capture the traffic entry of BTCFi?

These collaborations are not just "PPT collaborations": within 3 months of launching, the total cross-chain volume of YBTC has surpassed 15,000 BTC, with staking in the Sui ecosystem exceeding $30 million, and it is growing at a rate of 25% per week—data doesn't lie.

4. Capital votes with real money; the ambition behind the $25 million financing

The financing news of Bitlayer in 2025 directly caused a stir in the community: $25 million, led by Polychain Capital (the "talent scout" of the crypto circle, having invested in Solana, Avalanche), Franklin Templeton (a traditional asset management giant managing $1.5 trillion), with Framework Ventures, ABCDE, and others participating.

The use of this money hides Bitlayer's "expansion plan":

• 60% on technology: Optimizing the challenge mechanism of BitVM bridging for smoother cross-chain transactions; upgrading the Rollup network, aiming to increase transaction speed by another 50%.

• 30% for ecosystem development: Subsidizing DeFi projects that integrate, with the top 50 protocols deployed on Bitlayer eligible for up to $200,000 in start-up funding, attracting developers to come and "build houses."

• 10% for user acquisition: The "Booster" event and the upcoming Pre-TGE aim to ensure that more people hold BTR tokens since the prosperity of the ecosystem requires a user base.

What deserves the most attention is Franklin Templeton's entry—this giant managing vast amounts of pension and insurance funds cannot possibly be here just to "speculate on coins"; the bigger possibility is that in the future, through Bitlayer, traditional funds will be brought into Bitcoin DeFi, which would truly be a "nuclear-level layout."

5. Risks and opportunities coexist; can Bitlayer double Bitcoin's value?

Bitlayer's profile is impressive, but the pitfalls must also be recognized:

• Technology is still in the "trial period": BitVM is a new technology; although the mainnet is operational, when large-scale users flood in, will the challenge mechanism lag? Can the security of cross-chain withstand tests from black hat hackers? These need time to verify.

• Competitors are not easy targets: WBTC has dominated the market for years, and STX and Rootstock are also deeply cultivating BTCFi. Bitlayer needs to quickly seize users' minds, or it will easily be "late to the game and finish first."

• Regulatory red lines cannot be crossed: If YBTC is defined as a "security," institutions may hesitate to enter, which poses a potential risk for Bitlayer that relies on institutional funds.

But the opportunity is even more tempting: if Bitlayer can capture 20% of the Bitcoin DeFi market, the scale of YBTC could reach $26 billion, and the BTR token, as the "fuel" of the ecosystem (for paying fees and governance voting), could see its market value surge to $2 billion. Users participating in the "Booster" event are likely to be early beneficiaries.

Summary: Bitcoin's "DeFi revolution," Bitlayer stands at the forefront

What Bitlayer is doing is not just patching Bitcoin but replacing it with a new "financial operating system." When $13 trillion worth of Bitcoin begins to flow freely in the DeFi world, and when traditional institutional funds enter this ecosystem through Bitlayer, the entire landscape of the crypto market will be rewritten.

The current Bitlayer is like Aave in 2020—initially seeming inconspicuous but capturing the industry's pain points could lead to becoming a giant. For those looking to enter BTCFi, understanding Bitlayer's logic is more important than obsessing over price: whoever can solve Bitcoin's "difficulty in making money" will be able to take the largest slice of the cake.

And Bitlayer has already handed the fork and knife to the users.