Zest Introduces BTCz leveraging Babylon and Stacks

BTCz is a staked BTC product built on the strong foundations of Babylon and Stacks

Hi Bitcoin Builders,

It was a great week for the Bitcoin Builder ecosystem as a whole. Zest Protocol launched BTCz, which allows users to deploy their BTC to earn a BTC yield. The yield is earned via Babylon — Babylon enables BTC holders to earn yield by validating PoS systems.

In addition, BTCz uses Stacks for security. Stacks can read Bitcoin state. Therefore, Zest’s BTC staking contracts independently verify stake on Bitcoin L1 through Babylon without relying on third-party oracles.

Congrats to the Bitcoin Builders from Zest, Babylon, and Stacks!

Layers

• Core introduces LstBTC — a Bitcoin Liquid Staking Token on the Core blockchain.

• Stacks swaps are now available on the Xverse Wallet via Velar.

• Bitcoin Magazine publishes UTXO Research Report: State of the Bridges.

• Arch Network shared its litepaper: “Arch is a parallel execution layer that enhances Bitcoin’s capabilities by enabling fast, secure, and fully-verifiable smart contracts.”

• Bitlayer passes 7M transactions, according to Signal21.

• Here’s a look at total transactions and unique addresses across Bitcoin Layers, according to Signal21.

  

Other

• Thousands of businesses are now buying Bitcoin daily, according to River.

• Another South American country is interested in Bitcoin — Bitcoin Magazine writes about María Corina Machado’s (Venezuelan’s opposition leader) positive views on Bitcoin.