According to Maestro’s report, Babylon leads the staking race with $4.79 billion in TVL, but innovators like Solv, Lombard, and CoreDAO are pushing boundaries with liquid staking tokens and dual-token models that enhance capital efficiency. Meanwhile, Liquidium has carved out an early lead in Bitcoin-native lending, processing over $500 million in volume as demand for BTC-backed loans grows.
“We’re witnessing the convergence of TradFi and DeFi into a Bitcoin‑denominated capital market,” Marvin Bertin, Co‑Founder and CEO of Maestro, said. “For the first time since 2009, the critical pieces for on‑chain financial apps on Bitcoin are in place, spanning exchanges, lending, and stablecoins. Bitcoin is evolving from a static reserve asset into a dynamic, productive financial network.”
This shift is being accelerated by Bitcoin’s growing programmability layer. Scaling solutions, once dismissed as speculative experiments, now hold $5.52 billion in TVL—a clear signal that developers and users are embracing Bitcoin layer-2s for smart contracts and asset issuance without sacrificing self-custody. Stacks, in particular, has emerged as a standout, more than doubling its TVL in Q2 with approximately 2,000 BTC added.
Beyond DeFi, Bitcoin’s metaprotocols are quietly reshaping network activity. Maestro said in the report that Runes, Ordinals, and BRC-20s accounted for 40.6% of all Bitcoin transactions in H1 2025, with BRC-20 daily volume reaching $128 million.
Ordinals, after a slump in 2024, have staged a strong comeback, surpassing 80 million inscriptions and generating $681 million in fees. Even Runes, despite a late 2024 decline, saw renewed interest in early 2025, suggesting that Bitcoin’s cultural and financial use cases are expanding in tandem.
Stablecoins, long considered Ethereum’s domain, are also gaining ground in BitcoinFi. With $860 million in TVL, a 42.3% quarterly increase, projects like Avalon’s USDa are demonstrating that Bitcoin-native stablecoins can thrive, particularly when paired with high-yield offerings. This growth reflects a broader trend: Bitcoin is no longer just a base layer for settlements but a full-stack financial ecosystem.
Meanwhile, venture capital is taking notice. After a lull in funding, BitcoinFi startups raised $175 million across 32 deals in H1 2025, with 20 of those rounds targeting DeFi, custody, or consumer apps rather than pure infrastructure, Maestro said.
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