Original | Odaily Planet Daily

Author | Kate

With a Favorable Wind, I Ascend to the Sky

In 2024, it is destined to be an extraordinary year for Bitcoin and its ecosystem.

Since last year, Mingwen has led the Bitcoin ecosystem to set sail; in January of this year, the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF injected a shot in the arm into the market; this month, with the price of BTC surpassing the $70,000 mark, people are once again confident in the historical trend of price increase after halving; 23 days later (expected on April 21), the halving will reduce the block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, triggering a demand shock.

While Bitcoin's halving has attracted much attention, its ecosystem projects may also receive overflow value in BTC. A group of high-quality projects are also closely eyeing the opportunity of the halving, releasing major updates and gearing up for growth.

In this article, Odaily Planet Daily will take stock of the hot projects in the BTC ecosystem and their recent major moves, so that readers can make early layouts and seize the initiative.

Merlin Chain - Unlocking Staked Assets

As a hot BTC L2 project, the TVL of the Bitcoin native Layer 2 network Merlin Chain reached a peak of $29.04 million in March (according to DefiLama data).

On February 28, Merlin Chain conducted a staking activity called Merlin's Seal, through which users could accumulate M points by staking various assets to obtain Merlin Chain's governance token $MERL. The reward for this staking activity, Merlin Chain's governance token $MERL, accounted for 20% of the total supply, reportedly the highest proportion of staking rewards among all Layer 2 projects. On March 19, the Bitcoin Layer 2 network Merlin Chain announced the official launch of M-Token, a token generated by users staking tokens on Merlin Chain, used to experience products, interact with protocols within the Merlin Chain ecosystem, increase asset utilization, and witness ecosystem development.

The staked assets of participants in Merlin's Seal are expected to be unlocked in April, at which time users can unlock the original staked assets by destroying the corresponding M-Token. At that time, M-Token can be exchanged 1:1 for the original assets.

At the same time, according to official staff (@cyy7025219), the MERL token is planned to undergo a release before the halving in April.

Stacks - Nakamoto Upgrade

Stacks is the smart contract layer on Bitcoin, initially launched in 2021, with long-term support from top-tier capital. The community has always been building with a long-term mindset. With continuous accumulation, its ecosystem has begun to show promise, with TVL increasing month by month, reaching a peak of over $170 million (according to DefiLama data).

The most exciting news for Stacks this year should be the Nakamoto Upgrade. After the upgrade, Stacks will significantly increase its speed, reducing block time to 5 seconds (currently about 10 to 30 minutes), and will support sBTC.

Stacks has already launched the Nakamoto testnet to the public on March 26. Previously, Stacks co-founder Muneeb Ali stated that the Stacks Nakamoto upgrade will begin rolling out between April 15 and 29. The necessary guiding contracts for the Nakamoto upgrade are ready.

The Nakamoto upgrade coming in Q2 is expected to produce faster blocks, further enhance security, and is likely to significantly improve the DeFi experience, attracting more liquidity.

B²Network - Mainnet Launch

B²Network is a Layer 2 solution on Bitcoin, mainly utilizing zero-knowledge proof to submit commitments to the Bitcoin network, allowing challengers to initiate fraud proofs to utilize the strong consensus of the Bitcoin network to ensure the security of B²Network. Leading investors such as HashKey Capital, OKX Venture, and Shuidi Capital have explicitly stated that 10% of the tokens will be used to incentivize early users, with 5% as mining rewards and the other 5% distributed through airdrops.

In early February, B²Network launched a user incentive activity called B²Buzz, where users could deposit assets in the three days before the mainnet launch to obtain parts for assembling mining machines, which can mine B² native tokens. During the activity, all funds were 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 back to the first-layer network where they were deposited in April 2024.

The mainnet is expected to launch on April 3.

BounceBit - Mainnet Launch

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, which is a BEP2/BEP20 asset pegged 1:1 to Bitcoin and locked on the Bitcoin blockchain. By leveraging the widespread familiarity of Binance's user base and the intuitive design of the BNB chain, BounceBit significantly reduces the adoption threshold for users. This approach opens up a more accessible path 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 BounceBit point redemption and asset withdrawal functions.

Runes - Mainnet Launch and Large-scale Airdrop

Runes, or Bitcoin Runes, is a proposal by Casey Rodamor, the creator of the Ordinals protocol, which is called Runes. Runes 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, replaceable tokens existing on the Bitcoin blockchain, designed to represent replaceable assets with unique characteristics and metadata.

Previously, Casey stated at an event during Taipei Blockchain Week that the Runes protocol mainnet will go live at Bitcoin block height 840,000, which is expected to be in late April. Interestingly, this may be a prelude to 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 in the first month after launch, he is prepared to commit seppuku, sparking discussion among netizens.

Various projects in the Runes ecosystem are also taking advantage of the situation, hoping to generate some buzz. The Chinese Runes community has listed a project list for everyone to follow, and here are two relatively popular projects that Odaily is introducing:

List link: https://twitter.com/RunesCN/status/1768177337261297808

• Runecoin (@rune_coin)

A massive airdrop of RSIC, holding RSIC will receive Rune token rewards, with a large trading volume.

• Runestone 符文石（@LeonidasNFT)

Recently gaining high popularity, it is about to undergo a massive airdrop.

On March 9, the largest Ordinals inscription Runestone was successfully auctioned for 8 bitcoins ($544,713). Its creator, the well-known Ordinals figure Leonidas, stated, "All proceeds from the auction and the 2.25 bitcoins previously raised within the industry through Twitter will be used to pay for the network fees of the Runestone airdrop plan, the largest-scale Ordinals airdrop in history is about to begin."

The highly anticipated Bitcoin halving is approaching, and it is worth continuing to pay attention to who will once again stir up the heat in the BTC ecosystem at this opportune moment.

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