Share this article
Ethereum L2 Starknet Seeks 'Bitcoin's DeFi Take-Off Moment' With BTC Wallet Xverse
The aim is to provide a Bitcoin DeFi experience using trust assumptions as the next big thing to zero-knowledge proofs until such a time that OP_CAT is adopted
Updated Mar 12, 2025, 10:05 a.m. Published Mar 11, 2025, 4:38 p.m.
What to know:
- Ethereum layer-2 Starknet, in partnership with BTC wallet Xverse, is aiming to deliver a "full DeFi experience to Bitcoin users."
- The partnership with Xverse comes amid a period of increased research into Bitcoin scaling using Starknet.
- Developers have been increasingly exploring how to tap the security and deep reserves held in BTC to empower the broader DeFi and blockchain world.
One of the foremost projects aiming to increase the speed of the Ethereum network is ramping up its work on the world's original blockchain: Bitcoin.
Ethereum layer-2 Starknet, in partnership with BTC wallet Xverse, is aiming to deliver a "full DeFi experience to Bitcoin users."
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Xverse said it will "achieve Bitcoin's DeFi take-off moment," through integrating with Starknet in Q2 2025, in an emailed announcement on Tuesday.
The partnership with Xverse comes amid a period of increased research into Bitcoin scaling using Starknet.
The Starknet Foundation has published a new Bitcoin Roadmap, which described how Starknet would remain fully active on Ethereum, while "becoming Bitcoin's execution layer," with the goal of scaling the network "from 13 TPS to thousands."
Developers have been increasingly exploring how to tap the security and deep reserves held in BTC to empower the broader DeFi and blockchain world. The challenge has been how to address Bitcoin's relative lack of programability compared to Ethereum and others.
Layer 2s like Starknet aim to address this by acting as an execution layer, doing the heavy lifting of processing transactions, which are then ultimately given finality through settlement on Bitcoin.
For many observers, the missing piece is OP_CAT: a proposed implementation to the Bitcoin network that could unlock hitherto unseen programmability, which would be pivotal to the provision for DeFi.
Crucially, OP_CAT could allow zero-knowledge proofs, a cryptographic method of proving the validity of statements without offering information that may compromise privacy.
OP_CAT is not short of supporters, but its future as a Bitcoin improvement proposal (BIP) remains uncertain. However, Starknet and Xverse's plan is to make Bitcoin DeFi a reality even without it.
Xverse's aim is to provide a Bitcoin DeFi experience in its wallet using trust assumptions as the next big thing to zero-knowledge proofs until such a time that OP_CAT is adopted.
“Obviously, the endgame is trustless DeFi on Bitcoin,” Xverse founder Ken Liao said in Tuesday's announcement. “This will still have ‘training wheels’ of some trust assumptions, but it is still hugely exciting to be delivering the most accurate preview so far of what intuitive DeFi on Bitcoin will look and feel like."
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Solana’s Drift Launches v3, With 10x Faster Trades
With v3, the team says that about 85% of market orders will fill in under half a second, and liquidity will deepen enough to bring slippage on larger trades down to around 0.02%.
What to know:
- Drift, one of the largest perpetuals trading platforms on Solana, has launched Drift v3, a major upgrade meant to make on-chain trading feel as fast and smooth as using a centralized exchange.
- The new version will deliver 10-times faster trade execution thanks to a rebuilt backend, marking the largest performance jump the project has made so far.
Top Stories
