The Bitcoin halving narrative is relatively easy to understand for both beginners and experienced individuals in the cryptocurrency market. The year 2024 is an important year for the Bitcoin ecosystem, so this article will list five major projects that allow you to position yourself in advance in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Table of Contents:
Merlin Chain – Unlocking Staked Assets
Stacks – Nakamoto Upgrade
B2 Network – Mainnet Launch
BounceBit – Mainnet Launch
Runes – Mainnet Launch and Large-scale Airdrop
In 2024, it is destined to be an extraordinary year for Bitcoin and its ecosystem. Since last year, Bitcoin’s ecosystem has started to take off under the leadership of Bitcoin. In January of this year, the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF injected a strong stimulant into the market. This month, the price of BTC surpassed the $70,000 mark, instilling confidence in the historical trend of price increase after halving. The upcoming halving in 23 days (expected on April 21) will reduce the block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, triggering a demand shock.
While Bitcoin is receiving attention due to the halving, its ecosystem projects are also poised to benefit from the overflow value of BTC. A group of high-quality projects are closely following the opportunity of the halving node and releasing major updates, preparing for future growth.
This article will list popular projects in the BTC ecosystem and their recent major moves, allowing readers to position themselves and seize opportunities in advance.
Merlin Chain, a popular BTC Layer 2 project, had a TVL (Total Value Locked) of over $3 billion in March. On February 28, Merlin Chain launched the Merlin’s Seal staking event, allowing users to accumulate M points by staking various assets to obtain Merlin Chain’s governance token, $MERL. The Merlin’s Seal staking event rewarded users with 20% of the total supply of $MERL, which is said to be the highest staking reward among all Layer 2 projects. On March 19, the BTC Layer 2 network, Merlin Chain, announced the official launch of M-Token. This token is a reflective asset generated by users staking tokens on Merlin Chain and is used to experience products and interact with protocols within the Merlin Chain ecosystem, enhancing asset utilization and witnessing ecosystem development. The assets staked by participants in the Merlin’s Seal event are expected to be unlocked in April. At that time, users can unlock the original staked assets by redeeming the corresponding reflective asset M-Token at a 1:1 ratio. According to an official staff member (@cyy7025219), the MERL token is planned to have a release before the halving in April.
Stacks is a smart contract layer on top of Bitcoin that was launched in 2021 with long-term support from top-tier capital. The community has always been built with a long-term mindset. Due to continuous accumulation, the Stacks ecosystem has started to show progress, with TVL increasing month by month and reaching a peak of over $170 million (according to DefiLama data). The most exciting news for Stacks this year is the Nakamoto upgrade. After the upgrade, Stacks will significantly increase its speed, reducing block time to 5 seconds (currently around 10 to 30 minutes) and supporting sBTC. Stacks opened the Nakamoto testnet to the public on March 26. Muneeb Ali, the co-founder of Stacks, previously stated that the Stacks Nakamoto upgrade will begin rolling out between April 15 and 29. The required guiding contracts for the Nakamoto upgrade are ready. The Nakamoto upgrade in Q2 will result in faster blocks, improved security, and a significantly enhanced DeFi experience, attracting more liquidity.
B2 Network is a Layer 2 solution on Bitcoin that mainly utilizes zero-knowledge proof verification to submit commitments to the Bitcoin network, allowing challengers to launch fraud proof challenges to ensure the security of B2 Network using the strong consensus guarantee of the Bitcoin network. Leading investors such as HashKey Capital, OKX Venture, and Shuidi Capital have expressed their support, with 10% of the tokens being allocated as rewards to incentivize early users, including 5% for mining rewards and the remaining 5% to be distributed through airdrops. In early February, B2 Network launched the B2 Buzz user incentive event, allowing users to deposit assets within three days before the mainnet launch to obtain parts for assembling mining machines that can mine the native token B2. During the event, all funds are managed securely through multi-signature methods. According to official information (to be verified), part production will end on March 31. Bridge assets can be withdrawn to the first-layer network where they were deposited in April 2024. The mainnet is expected to launch on April 3.
BounceBit is a DeFi solution designed specifically for the Bitcoin ecosystem, powered by AUCTION and based on BTCB. This solution adopts an asset-centric strategy, with BTCB as the core asset. BTCB is a BEP 2/BEP 20 asset pegged 1:1 to Bitcoin and locked on the Bitcoin blockchain. By leveraging the extensive familiarity of Binance users and the intuitive design of the BNB chain, BounceBit significantly reduces the adoption threshold for users, providing a more accessible approach for wider participation and investment in the crypto ecosystem. BounceBit plans to launch the testnet in March, the mainnet on April 23, and conduct an airdrop in May, while also opening up BounceBit point redemption and asset withdrawal functions.
Runes, proposed by Casey Rodamor, the creator of the Ordinals protocol, aims to provide a user-friendly, UTXO-based alternative for existing tokenization protocols such as Ordinals, ORC-20, BRC-20, and Stamps. Runes are unique, fungible tokens that exist on the Bitcoin blockchain. They are designed to represent fungible assets with unique characteristics and metadata. Casey previously stated at a Taipei Blockchain Week event that the Runes protocol’s mainnet will go live at Bitcoin block height 840,000, which is expected to be in late April. Interestingly, this might be a way to build momentum and hype for the mainnet launch. On March 26, Casey posted on the X platform, stating that if the Runes ecosystem does not reach a market value of 1 billion USD in its first month online, he is prepared to commit seppuku. This statement sparked discussion among netizens.
Various projects in the Runes ecosystem are also taking advantage of the situation, hoping to generate excitement. The Runes Chinese community has listed a list of projects worth paying attention to. Odaily introduces two popular projects here:
List Link:
https://twitter.com/RunesCN/status/1768177337261297808
– Runecoin (@rune_coin): A large-scale airdrop of RSIC has been conducted, and holding RSIC will receive rewards in Runes tokens. It has a significant trading volume.
– Runestone 符文石 (@LeonidasNFT): With recent high popularity, it is about to conduct a large-scale airdrop.
On March 9, the largest Ordinals runestone was successfully auctioned for 8 BTC ($544,713). Its creator, Leonidas, a well-known figure in the Ordinals community, stated that “the proceeds from the auction, along with the 2.25 BTC previously raised through donations within the industry on Twitter, will be used to cover the network fees for the Runestone airdrop program, the largest-scale Ordinals airdrop in history, which is about to begin.”
With the highly anticipated Bitcoin halving approaching, it is worth paying continuous attention to who will once again ignite the heat in the BTC ecosystem.
Related reports:
M6 Report: How does the Bitcoin halving affect the market? What opportunities are available in the BTC ecosystem?
Ultimate Guide to the 2024 Bitcoin Halving: When is it? What should I pay attention to? How does it affect price and miners?