Oracle infrastructure for Bitcoin DeFi
DIA provides price feeds, proof-of-reserve data, and fair value pricing for wrapped BTC and Bitcoin-native assets across L1 and L2s.
The Bitcoin Ecosystem Map tracks the protocols, infrastructure, and standards built on Bitcoin. Layer 2 networks, Ordinals inscriptions, Runes tokens, and DeFi protocols across 9+ chains.
Read more about the Bitcoin ecosystemBitcoin DeFi TVL
$4.32B
DeFi protocols
87
Lightning capacityi
3,754 BTC
L2 TVL (9 chains)
$192.3M
| Protocol | Category | ▼TVL | 7d Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bridge | $9.28B | +4.7% | |
| Bridge | $7.98B | +1.8% | |
| Bridge | $5.44B | +2.8% | |
| Restaking | $3.27B | +8.1% | |
| Bridge | $723.95M | +1.7% | |
| Restaked BTC | $702.46M | +2.7% | |
| Bridge | $679.38M | +2.3% | |
| Bridge | $646.93M | +5.9% | |
| Bridge | $513.19M | +1.9% | |
| Bridge | $480.18M | +2.6% | |
| Bridge | $426.49M | +1.8% | |
| Decentralized BTC | $358.95M | +3.0% | |
| Anchor BTC | $357.41M | +13.1% | |
| Payments | $299.43M | +1.2% | |
| Bridge | $288.82M | +65.9% | |
| Restaked BTC | $275.96M | +2.8% | |
| Restaking | $257.83M | +2.4% | |
| Canonical Bridge | $228.19M | +2.5% | |
| Bridge | $195.15M | +3.0% | |
| Bridge | $184.93M | +0.3% | |
| Bridge | $170.47M | +2.4% | |
| RWA | $154.54M | +5.1% | |
| Canonical Bridge | $130.60M | +2.9% | |
| Bridge | $126.99M | +12.0% | |
| Bridge | $113.19M | +30.1% | |
| Canonical Bridge | $103.27M | +0.8% | |
| Indexes | $102.89M | +3.0% | |
| CeDeFi | $99.55M | +2.8% | |
| Bridge | $94.88M | +2.8% | |
| Farm | $82.96M | +2.6% | |
| Restaked BTC | $77.31M | +2.7% | |
| Bridge | $69.70M | +7.6% | |
| Bridge | $68.85M | -6.8% | |
| Anchor BTC | $68.83M | +2.8% | |
| Dexs | $54.61M | +1.3% | |
| Derivatives | $51.80M | +0.1% | |
| Anchor BTC | $32.04M | +2.7% | |
| Lending | $27.91M | +2.4% | |
| Bridge | $27.38M | +2.7% | |
| Decentralized BTC | $25.53M | +3.3% | |
| Bridge | $24.78M | +4.2% | |
| Algo-Stables | $12.07M | +1.3% | |
| Bridge | $9.63M | +2.6% | |
| Cross Chain Bridge | $9.57M | -0.9% | |
| CDP | $9.55M | +3.2% | |
| Decentralized BTC | $8.57M | +3.9% | |
| CDP | $7.35M | -2.6% | |
| Bridge | $6.93M | +2.2% | |
| Bridge | $6.18M | +2.6% | |
| Cross Chain Bridge | $5.26M | +13.9% | |
| Decentralized BTC | $3.80M | — | |
| Bridge | $3.10M | +2.5% | |
| CDP | $2.31M | +2.6% | |
| Bridge | $1.80M | +2.7% | |
| Basis Trading | $1.62M | +2.7% | |
| Bridge | $1.49M | +2.8% | |
| Bridge | $1.29M | +2.6% | |
| Lending | $1.26M | +8.5% | |
| Bridge | $1.15M | — | |
| Bridge | $615.4K | +1.8% | |
| Bridge | $566.8K | +2.8% | |
| Cross Chain Bridge | $345.0K | +9.5% | |
| Bridge | $151.8K | -0.1% | |
| NFT Marketplace | $144.0K | +1.6% | |
| Bridge | $121.6K | +2.6% | |
| Lending | $60.8K | — | |
| CDP | $58.5K | +0.1% | |
| Restaked BTC | $27.1K | +2.6% | |
| Restaked BTC | $22.9K | +2.5% | |
| Liquid Staking | $20.8K | +2.8% | |
| Bridge | $7.5K | +2.6% | |
| Bridge Aggregator | $1.5K | +2.6% | |
| Canonical Bridge | $1.2K | +2.8% | |
| Bridge | $749 | +1.8% | |
| Bridge | $338 | +2.6% | |
| Liquid Staking | $312 | -1.2% | |
| Bridge | $304 | — | |
| Decentralized BTC | $203 | +2.8% | |
| Bridge | $158 | — | |
| NFT Lending | $88 | +0.9% | |
| Cross Chain Bridge | $47 | +10.4% | |
| Bridge | $9 | +2.8% | |
| Bridge | $4 | +4.2% | |
| Bridge | $0 | +2.8% | |
| Restaked BTC | $0 | +2.6% | |
| Restaked BTC | $0 | +2.8% | |
| Bridge | $0 | +0.9% |
Bitcoin was designed as peer-to-peer electronic cash. The ecosystem that has grown around it extends beyond payments. Layer 2 networks process transactions off the main chain. Ordinals enable data inscriptions on individual satoshis. Runes provide a UTXO-native fungible token standard. DeFi protocols bring lending, trading, and yield to BTC holders.
Most Bitcoin DeFi TVL sits in liquid staking and lending. Babylon enables BTC holders to stake their Bitcoin to secure proof-of-stake chains. SolvBTC wraps BTC into a liquid staking token. Together, these two protocols account for a majority of Bitcoin DeFi TVL. Wrapped BTC on Ethereum (WBTC, cbBTC, tBTC) bridges additional capital into Ethereum-native lending markets on Morpho, Aave, and Compound.
This map organizes Bitcoin's ecosystem into three verticals: educational guides that explain the technology, directories that catalog active projects, and live protocol data from DeFiLlama and on-chain sources.
Bitcoin processes about 7 transactions per second on the base layer. Layer 2 networks handle transactions off-chain and settle to Bitcoin for finality.
The oldest and most widely deployed Bitcoin L2. Lightning uses payment channels between pairs of nodes. Multi-hop routing allows payments to traverse the network without a direct channel between sender and receiver. Transactions settle in milliseconds with fees in the single-digit satoshi range. Lightning is optimized for payments, not programmable smart contracts. Full Layer 2 guide.
Stacks (formerly Blockstack) runs smart contracts that settle to Bitcoin via Proof of Transfer consensus. Miners spend BTC to mine STX blocks. Smart contracts written in Clarity (a decidable language) can read Bitcoin state. The sBTC peg mechanism allows BTC to move between Bitcoin and Stacks without a federated multisig.
BOB (Build on Bitcoin) is an Ethereum rollup that settles to Bitcoin. It uses a hybrid architecture: EVM-compatible smart contracts for developer tooling, with Bitcoin as the security layer. RSK uses merged mining, sharing hashrate with Bitcoin miners. Liquid Network is a federated sidechain from Blockstream designed for traders and exchanges. Drivechains (BIP-300/301) propose trustless two-way pegs but require a Bitcoin soft fork.
Casey Rodarmor launched the Ordinals protocol in January 2023. It assigns a serial number to every satoshi based on when it was mined. This numbering (ordinal theory) makes individual satoshis identifiable and trackable across transactions.
Inscriptions are arbitrary data written to a satoshi using the witness field of a Bitcoin transaction. Images, text, HTML, JavaScript, SVGs. The data is stored on-chain permanently. An inscription is not a token or a smart contract; it is raw data attached to a specific satoshi. The witness data benefits from SegWit's 75% fee discount compared to regular transaction data.
The first Ordinals collections reached the market in February 2023. By late 2023, over 50 million inscriptions had been created. The Bitcoin blockchain grew from about 450 GB to over 600 GB that year, partly due to inscription data. The practical limit on inscription size is the 4 MB block weight limit. Full Ordinals guide.
Recursive inscriptions reference other inscriptions by their ID. An SVG inscription can call a JavaScript library stored in another inscription. This enables modular on-chain applications without re-uploading shared code. A front-end framework inscribed once can be reused by any subsequent inscription.
Ordinal wallets directory | Ordinals marketplaces directory.
Casey Rodarmor also created the Runes protocol, which launched at the Bitcoin halving in April 2024. Runes use Bitcoin's UTXO model for fungible tokens. Each UTXO can carry a Runes balance alongside its BTC value.
Before Runes, BRC-20 was the dominant Bitcoin token standard. BRC-20 uses Ordinals inscriptions to track token balances in JSON data. Each transfer requires a new inscription, which creates chain bloat. BRC-20 transactions contributed to sustained Bitcoin mempool congestion throughout 2023.
Runes encode transfers in OP_RETURN data (80 bytes) rather than full inscriptions. This is more space-efficient and aligns with Bitcoin's UTXO architecture. A Rune has a name, a supply, divisibility, and a symbol. No transfer hooks, no approval patterns, no programmable logic. What you gain in efficiency, you lose in programmability compared to Ethereum's ERC-20.
Other Bitcoin token standards include RGB (client-side validated state on Lightning) and Taproot Assets (formerly Taro, from Lightning Labs). Both use Taproot for more efficient on-chain footprints but have smaller ecosystems than Runes. Full Runes guide | Runes projects directory.
DeFi on Bitcoin operates differently from Ethereum DeFi. Bitcoin Script is not Turing-complete. Smart contracts require Layer 2 networks (Stacks, BOB, RSK) or bridges to EVM chains.
The largest Bitcoin DeFi category by TVL. Babylon enables BTC holders to lock their Bitcoin to provide economic security to proof-of-stake chains. SolvBTC wraps BTC into a liquid staking token that can be used as collateral elsewhere. These protocols give BTC holders yield without selling their Bitcoin.
Lending on Bitcoin uses Stacks-based protocols or wrapped BTC on Ethereum. Wrapped BTC (WBTC, cbBTC, tBTC) is the dominant pattern: BTC is locked with a custodian or bridge, an ERC-20 representation is minted on Ethereum, and that token is deposited as collateral into Morpho, Aave, or Compound vaults. This gives BTC holders access to Ethereum's lending markets but adds bridge and custody risk.
DEX trading on Bitcoin uses atomic swaps or Stacks-based AMMs. Volume is low compared to Ethereum or Solana DEXes. Most BTC spot trading happens on centralized exchanges. Lightning Network enables fast BTC transfers between exchanges but does not support on-chain AMM-style trading.
Protocol data on this map comes from DeFiLlama's protocol and chain endpoints. TVL, pool counts, and category classifications are updated every 6 hours through the DIA data pipeline. The protocol table on this page shows all protocols with "Bitcoin" in their chain list on DeFiLlama.
Educational content (guides on Layer 2s, Ordinals, Runes) is maintained in Notion and rendered through the DIA Notion API integration. Directory data (Runes projects, Ordinal wallets, Ordinals marketplaces) is sourced from Notion databases with structured metadata.
For full transparency on data collection and methodology, see the Data Sources page.
A protocol that assigns a serial number to every satoshi based on mining order. Each satoshi becomes individually identifiable and trackable. Inscriptions write arbitrary data (images, text, HTML, code) to a specific satoshi using the witness field of a Bitcoin transaction. The data is stored on-chain permanently. Ordinals launched in January 2023. Over 50 million inscriptions were created in the first year.
A fungible token protocol that uses Bitcoin's UTXO model. Each UTXO can carry a Runes balance alongside its BTC value. Runes encode transfers in OP_RETURN data (80 bytes) rather than full inscriptions, making them more space-efficient than BRC-20 tokens. The protocol launched at the Bitcoin halving in April 2024. A Rune has a name, supply, divisibility, and symbol. No smart contract logic.
A network that processes transactions off the Bitcoin base layer and settles back to Bitcoin for security. Lightning Network uses payment channels for near-instant transfers. Stacks runs smart contracts that settle via Proof of Transfer. BOB is an Ethereum rollup that uses Bitcoin as the security layer. Other L2s include RSK (merged-mining sidechain) and Liquid Network (federated sidechain).
Ordinals store data directly on the Bitcoin blockchain in the witness field. Ethereum NFTs typically store a token URI that points to off-chain data (IPFS, Arweave, or a server). Ordinals have no smart contract layer: there is no transfer hook, no royalty enforcement, no approval pattern. Ownership is determined by who controls the UTXO containing the inscribed satoshi. Ethereum NFTs use ERC-721 or ERC-1155 contracts with programmable logic.
Arbitrary data written to a specific satoshi using the witness field of a Bitcoin transaction. The witness (SegWit) data benefits from a 75% fee discount compared to regular transaction data. An inscription can be an image (PNG, JPEG, SVG, WebP), plain text, HTML, JavaScript, JSON, or any other file type. Once confirmed, the data is permanent and immutable. Recursive inscriptions reference other inscriptions by ID, enabling on-chain composability.
BRC-20 uses Ordinals inscriptions to track token balances in JSON data. Each transfer requires a new inscription, which creates chain bloat. Runes use OP_RETURN data encoded in the transaction itself, not in witness data. This is more efficient and aligns with Bitcoin's UTXO model. BRC-20 contributed to significant mempool congestion in 2023. Runes solve this at the cost of programmability: no transfer hooks, no approval patterns, no smart contract logic.
DeFi applications that use BTC as the primary asset. Bitcoin Script is not Turing-complete, so smart contracts require Layer 2 networks (Stacks, BOB, RSK) or bridges to EVM chains. The largest categories by TVL are liquid staking (Babylon, SolvBTC) and lending. Wrapped BTC on Ethereum (WBTC, cbBTC, tBTC) has deeper DeFi markets than native Bitcoin DeFi. DEX volume on Bitcoin is significantly lower than on Ethereum or Solana.
Protocol data (TVL, categories, chain coverage) comes from DeFiLlama's protocol and chain API endpoints, updated every 6 hours through the DIA data pipeline. Educational content (guides on Layer 2s, Ordinals, Runes) is maintained in Notion. Directory data (Runes projects, Ordinal wallets, Ordinals marketplaces) is sourced from Notion databases with structured metadata.