Based on the data statistics on March 2nd, the total TVL of the Bitcoin Layer 2 network MerlinChain has reached 3 billion USD. Among them, the proportion of Bitcoin ecosystem assets is 90.83%, including 15.96 billion USD worth of BTC and 404 million USD worth of BRC-20 assets. Last month, within 14 days of launching the staking activity, the total TVL of MerlinChain had already reached 19.7 billion USD, surpassing the equally notable Blast which went online in November last year. On February 26th, the total value of NFTs within the MerlinChain ecosystem exceeded 420 million USD, making it the highest NFT market value public chain project outside of Ethereum.
Project Introduction
MerlinChain is a new BTCLayer2 solution supported by OKX. Its popularity stems from directly addressing the core pain point of the Bitcoin network - scalability issues.
Merlin Chain adopts ZK-Rollup to compress a large number of transaction proofs into a simple checksum to improve transaction efficiency and scalability. The sequencer nodes on it are responsible for collecting and batch processing transactions, generating compressed transaction data, ZK state roots, and proving through zkEVM. Then, the compressed transaction data and ZK proof are uploaded to Taproot on the Bitcoin L1 via a decentralized Oracle network. This Taproot is available for the entire network to ensure transparency and security.
Team Information:
The team behind MerlinChain, BitmapTech (formerly known as RCSV), has been deeply involved in the Bitcoin ecosystem for a long time and has contributed several native innovative projects to Bitcoin in the past year, with a total market value exceeding 5 billion USD. The BRC-420 "Blue Box" issued by BitmapTech has become one of the most popular assets in the Ordinals protocol, with a price soaring from $0.15 to $34,000, second only to BAYC and CryptoPunks.
Funding Information: On February 5th, Merlin Chain announced the completion of its financing, with 24 institutions including OKX Ventures, ABCDE, Foresight Ventures, and Arkstream Capital participating. The specific amount of financing has not been disclosed.
Operational Activities
- Launchpad Staking Airdrop Activity
Total MERL token supply: 2,100,000,000 Sale price: 0.00004762 USDT
On February 5th, MerlinChain announced that 1% of the total token supply (21 million MERL) would be used for Launchpad through People's Launchpad, with an initial price of 0.00004762 USDT.
On February 8th, MerlinChain launched a total of 6 phases of mainnet staking activities and announced that 20% of the token supply would be used for airdrops, a proportion significantly higher than the common 5% airdrop allocation for L2 projects. This staking activity not only supports BTC native assets (BTC, BRC-420 assets, and BTC-20 assets), but also supports EVM assets (assets that can be deposited on the Ethereum mainnet or Arbitrum, and can also receive exclusive native staking rewards), and rewards can also be obtained by providing liquidity for MerlinChain's native DexMerlinSwap.
On February 16th, MerlinChain continued to launch the second phase of Merlin's Seal, adding Blue Wands, Dragon Balls, and mainstream assets on ZKFair for staking.
On February 19th, MerlinChain launched the first BRC-20 token $VOYA airdrop, and further added staking assets such as NodeMonkes, BitcoinPuppets, BitcoinFrogs, etc.
Image Source: Zhihu Column Cryptocurrency Brother Dong
- Interactive Cooperation
On February 13th, the full-chain liquidity distribution network StakeStone established a strategic partnership with MerlinChain to provide staking for ETH pledged in the MerlinSeal activity and upcoming Restaking re-staking rewards for users.
On February 16th, the Bitcoin Layer2 network MAPProtocol reached a cooperation with MerlinChain, bringing Bitcoin-level point-to-point cross-chain interoperability between different Bitcoin L2 networks and EVM ecological chains.
On February 21st, the BTC native stablecoin protocol bitSmiley reached an official strategic cooperation with the BTCLayer2 network MerlinChain. The bitSmiley native asset bitDisc-BlackNFT joined the MerlinSeal activity, becoming one of the recognized BTC assets in the Merlin mainnet activity.
On February 26th, the cryptocurrency exchange BIT announced a cooperation with MerlinChain to support users in pledging ETHS assets as the official custodian, becoming the exclusive channel for users to pledge ETHS and accumulate airdrop M points on MerlinChain.
On February 27th, OKXWeb3 Wallet announced that it has integrated with the MerlinChain network, allowing users to switch to the MerlinChain network with one click for managing corresponding currencies without manual configuration. In addition, in the discovery section of the OKXWeb3 Wallet, DApp interaction within the MerlinChain network ecosystem can also be synchronized.
On February 27th, TRON announced a strategic cooperation with MerlinChain to jointly expand the interoperability, practicality, and financial accessibility of Bitcoin.
- KOL Operation and Maintenance
The MerlinChain team is also very proactive and enthusiastic in operating and maintaining KOLs. The rapid development of MerlinChain is not only due to the positive development of the Bitcoin chain environment but also to the project team's textbook-like operational methods. The focus of the project team has always been on the community, and the 20% airdrop ratio and KOL promotion and publicity are the most effective ways to ignite the enthusiasm of the masses.
Online Ecosystem Inventory
Through excellent operational activities, a large number of players and attention have been attracted, and the team's construction of MerlinChain is also continuously improving. Currently, the following 6 projects have been deployed on the network:
Cross-chain Bridge:
Official cross-chain bridge MerlinBridge: This is the official cross-chain bridge project of MerlinChain, which now supports a wide range of assets pledged to MerlinSeal.
Third-party stablecoin cross-chain bridge Meson: Meson is a stablecoin trading protocol that promotes the free flow of stablecoins between Ethereum, Layer2, and major high-performance public chains. With its new product design and technical stack, Meson provides point-to-point trading of major stablecoins on any supported network, with significant advantages in fast confirmation, low fees, and zero slippage.
Related link: https://app.trendx.tech/project/d4fc3b1a76151dfbccdb35469defae2555268f544a83ae10d397821f073b533e
Swap
MerlinSwap: This is the official DEX of MerlinChain. According to the official white paper, it has the following 4 characteristics:
Revolutionary DL-AMMDEX: It uses the most advanced liquidity algorithm for fast and efficient asset swapping, thereby improving capital efficiency and optimizing yield.
Adaptive Liquidity Mining: Provides options for static and dynamic liquidity mining, allowing users to implement dual incentives within any price range, thereby minimizing unused liquidity.
CEX-Level User Experience: Provides an interface that reflects the efficiency and simplicity of centralized exchanges, adapting to the decentralized environment.
Cross-chain Operations: MerlinSwap supports interoperability with other chains, allowing users to trade on different blockchains and enjoy the convenience of cross-chain transactions.
In addition, the official introduction of the products and services provided by MerlinSwap currently includes:
Limit Orders: Corresponding to CEX orders, this feature allows users to execute trades with higher precision and control.
Enhanced Gas Trading Efficiency: Using the Merlin Chain to reduce gas fees, ensuring a more efficient trading experience.
CEX-Equivalent User Experience: An intuitive and familiar interface helps seamlessly transition from centralized trading platforms to decentralized ones.
Related link: https://app.trendx.tech/project/fac31fc1908531d9187fe94fc8d30fa0ff624d8cf7d384e46fa193a1d9b59f0e
MEME Coin:
$VOYA:
$VOYA is the first fair-launched BRC-20 token on the Merlin Chain. $VOYA serves as an important link between the Merlin Chain and BRC-20, and the project will airdrop 10 million $VOYA tokens to early supporters of the Merlin Chain through MerlinSwap, encouraging adventurers to join the GrandVoyage and explore the unknown realms of MerlinChain.
$HUHU:
HUHU is a dog-themed project on the Merlin Chain, and holding a certain amount of $HUHU tokens allows participation in the $VOYA token airdrop activity. The conditions for claiming the $VOYA token airdrop include holding HUHU assets in an on-chain wallet on the Merlin Chain: either reaching or exceeding a total of 140K $HUHU, or the token quantity of HUHU in the HUHU-BTC LP * 0.00000007 + the value of BTC reaching or exceeding 0.01 BTC.
Gamefi:
MerlinLand (ERC1420)
MerlinLand is a GameFi token inscription exchange protocol built on the MerlinChain, creating the ERC-1420 protocol standard while also being compatible with BTC (L1) BRC-420 and Bitmap assets. In addition, MerlinLand utilizes spatial axis positioning and metadata writing features, making its protocol a programmable sandbox metaverse.
On February 27th, MerlinLand announced the official launch of the MLAPP construction based on land metadata.
Project Risk Warning
The time required for user assets to be transferred from other chains to the Merlin Chain is within the normal range. However, if users want to move assets from the Merlin Chain to other chains, they will need to wait for 2 days or several days.
After participating in the MerlinSeal staking activity, the pledged assets cannot be withdrawn. Users will need to wait for the official token mapping to their wallets in March or April in order to use the assets in various projects and products within the Merlin ecosystem.
The internal proportion of the 20% token airdrop is questionable. Many suspected investor or project addresses have already staked large amounts of funds early on (i.e., staked in their own addresses without the risk of facing the security of counterpart funds like retail investors). According to the airdrop rules, if the airdrop is based on the proportion of points, they will receive the majority of the airdrop, while the proportion of the airdrop that retail investors can actually receive is extremely low.
Lack of official information. In February, MerlinChain had frequent activities, but the information on the official Twitter account often lagged behind the messages from community KOLs, which puts retail investors at a significant disadvantage. It can be understood that in the initial stage of the project, there were many promotional collaborations with KOLs, and many KOLs could get first-hand information. However, there is still room for improvement in the channels for retail investors to obtain information. The benefits of following KOLs in a rush can only be short-term. Cultivating trust in the official project is the cornerstone for a project to go further.
For more information about MerlinChain projects, you can stay updated on project trends through TrendX, follow the latest trends, participate in community discussions, and refer to insights from industry experts: https://app.trendx.tech/project/b016ce168452cc76289293156cc5ddb359d746c918da6aae0b89729c0bce40f1
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