The first decentralized finance (DeFi) company to launch a user-friendly suite of products on Bitcoin will \u201cwin the entire market\u201d of the blockchain\u2019s 300 million users, one crypto founder says.<\/p>\n
Alexei Zamyatin, the co-founder of the Bitcoin layer 2 Build on Bitcoin, told Cointelegraph at TOKEN2049 in Dubai that \u201cthe advantage of Bitcoin DeFi is that the market is much bigger, you have a much bigger retail user base that you can tap into.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not easy to convert it, but if you manage to win in Bitcoin DeFi, you win the entire market.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zamyatin said the 300 million Bitcoin users <\/strong>would mean DeFi services on the blockchain would \u201coutgrow everything we’ve seen so far in Ethereum and Solana.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Build on Bitcoin is one of the firms looking to win market share, offering a hybrid layer 2 solution that combines Bitcoin\u2019s security with Ethereum DeFi capabilities via BitVM,<\/a> a platform that processes Turing-complete Bitcoin contracts.<\/a><\/p>\n Zamyatin argued that Bitcoin-native bridges are necessary for DeFi on Bitcoin as the blockchain\u2019s security is strong, but it lacks the human talent, tools and network effects of Ethereum.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alexei Zamyatin speaking with Cointelegraph\u2019s Ezra Reguerra at Token2049. Source: Cointelegraph<\/em><\/p>\n Zamyatin said Bitcoin (BTC<\/a>) yield and stablecoin products are driving strong demand for Bitcoin-based DeFi.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of institutions that are buying Bitcoin now usually have to find yield on the assets they hold. So Bitcoin yield is becoming a very hot and highly sought-after thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Demand for Bitcoin-backed stablecoins is also skyrocketing because Bitcoin is the \u201cbest collateral,\u201d Zamyatin added.<\/p>\n What if we tokenized the Bitcoin ETF so institutions could get access to DeFi yields? pic.twitter.com\/2HCpwbCZDS<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 alexei (@alexeiZamyatin) April 10, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Bitcoin staking<\/a> has become the main DeFi use case outside of payments, which involves Bitcoin holders locking their coins in self-custodial vaults or extractable one-time signatures to earn staking rewards on proof-of-stake blockchains like Ethereum.<\/p>\n The Babylon Protocol is currently leading this market with $4.64 billion worth of value locked, representing nearly 80% of all value locked on Bitcoin, DefiLlama data<\/a> shows.<\/p>\n Bitcoin\u2019s DeFi TVL is still a fraction of the $54.6 billion worth of value locked on Ethereum.<\/p>\n Zamyatin acknowledged the numerous hacks on blockchain bridges, but argued most of those incidents resulted from teams failing to manage their private keys,<\/a> rather than from smart contract vulnerabilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n While competition in the retail market is wide open, Zamyatin noted that many institutions still hesitate to use bridges, that allow users to move value between incompatible blockchains.<\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>Bitcoin NFTs, layer-2 and restaking hype \u2018completely gon<\/strong><\/em><\/a>e\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Efforts have been made to increase the number of bridge signers from five to 50 in some cases, Zamyatin noted.<\/p>\n However, institutions have been reluctant to adopt these solutions because they often don\u2019t know who\u2019s signing the transactions.<\/p>\n For example, the Ren Protocol\u2019s RenBTC operates via a decentralized network of nodes called Darknodes, which sign transactions to lock BTC and mint RenBTC to use on other chains.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, institutions continue to avoid these protocols due to the degree of anonymity involved and instead opt to use trusted custodians like BitGo and Coinbase Custody for such activities.<\/p>\nBridging solutions a controversial topic<\/h2>\n