A lot. January solidified Rootstock’s position as Bitcoin’s DeFi Layer. Secure. Uncensorable. Unstoppable.
Despite turbulence in the market, Rootstock strengthened its position as the top Bitcoin scaling solution. Top-tier teams deployed institutional-grade vaults, and one of Japan’s biggest names in Web3 announced a partnership to bring BTCFi to Japanese companies.
On the ground, the ecosystem delivered real utility: Argentina’s first BTC-backed Visa card went live, Tropykus hit four years of Bitcoin-collateralized lending, and Geyser Fund brought crowdfunding to the network. Builder programs launched to onboard developers, and the PowPeg maintained perfect uptime.
Not bad for 31 days.
Top Bitcoin Sidechain by TVL
The Rootstock blockchain reinforced its position as the highest TVL Bitcoin sidechain in January. The network maintained 100% PowPeg uptime throughout the month—every bridge transaction worked, no downtime, no drama. (We got a massive update coming soon when it comes to bridging assets. Stay tuned)
This TVL leadership is driven by community trust, secure infrastructure, and growing Bitcoin DeFi activity. It’s the foundation that makes everything else possible.
Institutional Bitcoin Infrastructure
January proved Rootstock is becoming the infrastructure institutions choose for launching Bitcoin-secured products.
- Mellow Protocol launches institutional BTC vault on Rootstock: Tyr_Capital and mellowprotocol launched a permissioned vault built exclusively for institutions. BTC derivatives are deployed on Rootstock and used as collateral for market-neutral, BTC-denominated strategies managed by Tyr Capital. The vault uses smart contracts to define how BTC can be deployed and who can operate it, with rules enforced onchain. Independent NAV, monthly liquidity, and operational controls built into the vault rails. Here’s more on that.
- Midas brings mHyperBTC to Rootstock:
Midas integrated with Rootstock to bring mHyperBTC, an institutional vault tracking BTC-denominated market-neutral strategies managed by Hyperithm, a digital asset manager based in Tokyo and Seoul. Users can mint mHyperBTC with rBTC directly on Rootstock. Midas has powered over $1.7B in asset issuance to date. - Real-World Asset tokenization:
Mercado Bitcoin successfully tokenized over $20M in RWAs on Rootstock. It’s an early step in bringing real-world assets to Bitcoin-secured infrastructure.
Expanding Presence in Asia
RootstockLabs announced a partnership with Animoca Brands Japan to explore Bitcoin-native institutional use cases. It’s part of a broader push into Asian markets, where institutional interest in Bitcoin infrastructure is growing rapidly.
“Through this partnership, Animoca Brands Japan and RootstockLabs will support corporate adoption of cryptoassets in a manner compliant with Japan’s regulatory environment,” says Kensuke Amo, CEO of Animoca Brands Japan.
More on this Cointelegraph.
#FunFact: Japanese companies have shown growing interest in holding Bitcoin as a long-term strategic reserve. Metaplanet is the most prominent corporate adopter of a Bitcoin treasury strategy in the country, with a balance of 35,102 BTC. Other publicly traded Japanese companies that have built Bitcoin positions include NEXON Co., Ltd., which holds about 1,717 BTC, followed by Remixpoint with roughly 1,411 BTC and Anap Holdings Inc. with around 1,347 BTC.
Ecosystem Growth: Real Bitcoin Utility
- Lemon launched Argentina’s first Bitcoin-backed Visa card in late January. No bank account required. No credit score needed. You hold Bitcoin, you get a Visa card that works everywhere Visa is accepted. For people living in countries with unstable banking systems, this changes everything.
- Tropykus celebrated four years of Bitcoin-collateralized lending on Rootstock by highlighting real impact. One story stood out: someone in a high-interest-rate country used a Bitcoin loan to start a bakery. Traditional banks wouldn’t give them credit. They had Bitcoin, got a loan, built a business. That’s four years of permissionless lending enabling real entrepreneurship.
- Geyser Fund integrated with Rootstock in mid-January, bringing all-or-nothing crowdfunding to the network. Projects either hit their funding goal or everyone gets refunded—no partial funding limbo. The first campaigns went live immediately, including projects from We Satoshis.
We hosted Co-founder and CEO of Geyser, Mick Morucci, on our monthly Bitcoin Builders Call. Give it a listen here.
Builder Programs Launched
₿uilder Rootcamp kicked off in early January. a 10-week program giving developers direct access to Rootstock engineers. If you can code in Solidity, you can build Bitcoin DeFi applications. The program removes the technical barriers for EVM developers who want to build on Bitcoin.
All you need to know of the program.
The Rootstock Ambassador Program opened for applications on January 13. Ambassadors will run local events, create content, and help people understand what BTCFi actually is—grassroots expansion to match the technical infrastructure.
Infrastructure Updates
- The PowPeg App updated to v3.3.1 with UX and security improvements, making BTC-to-rBTC bridging smoother.
- Peach Bitcoin added DoC and USDT trading pairs.
Looking Forward
January showed two parallel tracks converging: institutional-grade infrastructure launching alongside real-world financial access for people traditional systems ignore. The Mellow Protocol and Midas vaults represent serious institutional capital entering Bitcoin DeFi. The Lemon Visa card, Tropykus loans, and Geyser crowdfunding represent financial inclusion that works.
₿uilder Rootcamp is ramping up. Asian market expansion is underway. More institutional vault strategies are coming. Real-world applications keep launching.
January wasn’t about hype. It was about Bitcoin infrastructure proving it can serve both institutional investors and people in emerging markets who need access to credit.
That’s the point.
💡There’s a lot happening in the ecosystem. If you want to stay on top of it, join the discussion in our Discord here.
