Bitlayer Joins Forces With Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool to Supercharge BTC DeFi

Bitlayer, a Bitcoin Layer 2 constructed on the BitVM paradigm, has partnered with three of the world’s largest bitcoin

mining swimming pools — Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool — in a first-of-its-kind collaboration to speed up the real-world adoption of BitVM, a breakthrough expertise targeted on enabling Bitcoin-native DeFi.

Bitcoin’s ecosystem has lagged behind different Layer 1s like Ethereum for years due to technical limitations — particularly its lack of help for Turing-complete good contracts. Bitlayer’s BitVM paradigm addresses this by providing Bitcoin-equivalent safety and Turing completeness with out altering Bitcoin’s core protocol or compromising its foundational design.

But turning that imaginative and prescient into actuality requires the cooperation of miners — the entities that create new blocks and validate transactions in change for BTC. That’s exactly what this new partnership secures.

The three mining swimming pools, representing over 36% of Bitcoin’s complete computing energy (hashrate), have agreed to help non-standard transactions (NSTs) — a vital piece of BitVM’s challenge-response mechanism, the corporations mentioned. Their help removes a key bottleneck to BitVM deployment and brings the system nearer to widespread use.

NSTs are transactions which can be legitimate below Bitcoin’s consensus guidelines however should not relayed by the default Bitcoin Core software program, making them laborious to get confirmed on-chain with out miner cooperation.

Under this partnership, Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool will function guardians of the BitVM Bridge, making certain NSTs are reliably included in blocks and turn out to be a part of Bitcoin’s immutable ledger.

The BitVM bridge is a particular software that facilitates safe and dependable motion of BTC into different blockchain ecosystems — corresponding to rollups, cross-chain protocols, and good contracts — with out counting on centralized intermediaries. It opens the door for broader Bitcoin DeFi functions whereas preserving the community’s sturdy safety ensures.

“BitVM represents the most credible path to bring on-chain validation to Bitcoin while maintaining its core security. This partnership solves the critical last-mile challenge of getting Non-Standard Transactions included on-chain,” mentioned Kevin He, co-founder of Bitlayer, in a press launch shared with CoinDesk.

A win for miners

This isn’t only a milestone for Bitlayer — it’s a strategic win for miners as properly, particularly as they face dwindling revenue due to per-block BTC rewards being reduce in half each 4 years.

Andy, CEO of Antpool, famous that Bitlayer’s BitVM might help drive new financial exercise and fee-based revenue for miners.

“Built on BitVM, Bitlayer enables BTC to flow into DeFi and Layer 2 ecosystems. That means more use, more fees, and long-term sustainability for miners,” Andy mentioned within the press launch.

Leon Liang, chief technique officer at F2Pool, emphasised the significance of innovation, saying, “we want to support high-quality projects like Bitlayer that expand what Bitcoin can do.”

SpiderPool CTO Kenway spoke to the broader potential of Bitcoin as a financial services platform, stating, “This partnership lets us unlock new prospects for Bitcoin DeFi. It enhances Bitcoin’s utility whereas reinforcing miners’ central position within the ecosystem.”

Demand for bitcoin DeFi is rising quickly

Bitlayer’s collaboration with mining giants follows current integrations with main Layer 1 ecosystems like Sui, Base, Arbitrum, and Starknet. Together, these partnerships replicate a rising demand for safe, Bitcoin-native DeFi infrastructure that scales.

Bitlayer is actively onboarding extra validators and early adopters to assist safe and broaden the BitVM Bridge — and to construct what might turn out to be the cornerstone of Bitcoin’s subsequent evolution.