The Stacks-based decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem has experienced a sharp boost in liquidity, with stablecoin supply increasing by more than 400% during the first quarter of the year.
STX, the native token of the Bitcoin layer-2 protocol Stacks, surged 56% over the past week, becoming the top performer among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies, driven by growing optimism around institutional adoption.
According to CoinDesk data, STX climbed over 21% in the past 24 hours alone, reaching a two-month high of $0.92 on Friday and ranking as the day’s biggest gainer.
Stacks is recognized as the leading Bitcoin layer-2 solution for deploying smart contracts and decentralized applications. Earlier this week, BitGo — a prominent digital asset custodian and infrastructure provider and the company behind wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) — enabled its clients to explore yield opportunities on Stacks by integrating sBTC, a synthetic asset pegged 1:1 with bitcoin (BTC) on the Stacks blockchain.
“sBTC unlocks programmable, decentralized financial products while preserving Bitcoin’s foundational principles — and this is just the beginning,” said Abishek Singh, a product manager at BitGo. “With over $3 trillion in transactions processed and $48 billion in staked assets, BitGo is uniquely positioned to help institutions harness this new wave of Bitcoin utility.”
Within the Stacks ecosystem, STX serves multiple functions: it bridges the Stacks and Bitcoin blockchains, supports smart contract development, facilitates network governance, and powers the proof-of-transfer consensus mechanism, allowing holders to earn BTC by locking their STX.
sBTC empowers users to participate in Stacks’ DeFi ecosystem without losing exposure to Bitcoin’s price. A key update — the launch of an sBTC withdrawal feature set for April 30 — will allow institutions to transition seamlessly between BTC and sBTC, paving the way for innovative applications combining Stacks’ smart contract capabilities with Bitcoin’s security.
Liquidity on the Rise
Liquidity within the Stacks DeFi ecosystem continues to strengthen. The Stacks protocol announced Friday on X that stablecoin supply grew by over 400% in Q1, trailing only Morph and Cronos in growth.
According to DefiLlama, stablecoin supply on Stacks has expanded from about $1 million at the beginning of January to nearly $7 million today.
