In a remarkable demonstration of Bitcoin’s growing role in DeFi, SatLayer successfully facilitated the migration of approximately 2,880 BTC (approx $280 million) to Berachain during the latter’s recent Boyco vault campaign.
Taking place over just five days (January 28-February 2), the liquidity influx marked one of the largest coordinated movements of Bitcoin into the emerging Layer-1 ecosystem. Yield-chasing retail and institutional investors alike FOMO’d into the Boyco vaults, attracted by a series of generous incentives and contributing to Boyco’s total $3 billion TVL.
The collaboration between Babylon-based Bitcoin Validated Service (BVS) SatLayer and EVM-identical blockchain Berachain reflects growing interest in BCTFi, a popular offshoot of DeFi wherein users deploy BTC to generate value in financial markets.
Boomtime for Bitcoin-based DeFi
When the final figure was confirmed, many were stunned by the level of engagement witnessed in the Boyco campaign. In some ways, the writing had been on the wall: around 138K users pre-deposited funds, and prior to the vault launch, SatLayer had conducted extensive coordination with major Bitcoin LST partners like Stakestone, Lombard Finance, and Solv Protocol, the better to pique the interest of BTC whales.
SatLayer’s enhanced incentives included 4x Sats² rewards combined with stacked LST (Liquid Staking Token) incentives for liquidity deposits, making it a proposition that was simply too good to ignore for BTCFi investors. The success of the Boyco campaign suggests a growing appetite for Bitcoin-based yield opportunities beyond traditional lending platforms.
2024 was a breakout year for BTCFi. At the turn of the year, the total value locked in Bitcoin protocols was just $300 million; by the end of December, it had risen to $6.5 billion, a 2,000% surge. If SatLayer’s link-up with Berachain is any indication, investors’ appetite for BTCFi isn’t cooling anytime soon.
Bitcoin’s Role in DeFi
Bitcoin’s integration with the broader DeFi ecosystem has hardly been an overnight sensation; technologists have been working on bringing BTC to DeFi ever since the sector started picking up steam in 2019. Over the last 12 months, though, BTCFi has come of age, largely a consequence of Bitcoin L2 expansion and AVS development.
As well as collaborating with SatLayer, Berachain recently teamed up with multi-asset restaking protocol Bedrock, with the latter onboarding nearly 1,000 uniBTC to the Proof-of-Liquidity (PoL) blockchain. A recent report by Galaxy Digital, meanwhile, suggests $47 billion in Bitcoin could flow into the BTCFi ecosystem by 2030.
