For a long time, many thought nothing could have been built on Bitcoin.

The past year has seen a renaissance within the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Layers 2, Ordinals, and other innovative infrastructure are emerging quickly.

The digital economy on Bitcoin is becoming a reality.

What happened on Stacks in the last few weeks?

• Beta launch of Signal 21, the Bitcoin data platform

• 8 new Signers onboarded to enhance Stacks security

• Zest Protocol lending markets went live

• New Stacks coding tasks launched on EasyA app

Despite the various criticism about Bitcoin, it is stronger than ever.

• BTC is increasingly recognised as a valuable asset
• L2s are maturing and scaling the Bitcoin ecosystem

Bitcoin may be seen as digital gold, yet it's also laying the foundation for a digital economy.

After the Nakamoto upgrade, sBTC emerges as the next crucial release on Stacks.

By facilitating Bitcoin-backed applications, sBTC will attract fresh builders to the ecosystem.

They will focus on making BTC the go-to asset for DeFi and decentralized protocols.

sBTC is all about enabling Bitcoin-backed protocols.

With the Bifrost Network collaboration, sBTC will be used as collateral across other DeFi apps.

Read more about the integration here:
https://stacks.org/bifrost-stacks-collaboration

Why L2s are a positive development for the Bitcoin ecosystem?

By unlocking BTC capital, they enable to build a digital economy on top of Bitcoin.

As programmability is enhanced, a new range of Bitcoin use cases will emerge.

L2s already represent a significant part of other chains' activity, showcasing their success as a scaling solution.

Bitcoin is next in line to reap the benefits, with L2s opening doors to fresh use cases for the ecosystem.

A lot is happening on Stacks, and keeping up with the ecosystem can be hard.

Just this week, ALEX became the largest Bitcoin L2 DeFi app, and Bifrost network pledged to support sBTC.

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The Stacks Nakamoto upgrade has been approved 🎉

Almost 100% of the STX holders voted in favor of the release. 💯

What are the next steps from here? 🤔

Expect the Nakamoto mainnet activation window between May 15-29. 📅

Read more about Nakamoto approval here:
https://stacks.org/nakamoto-upgrade-approved

A week full of milestones for Stacks DeFi:

• Arkadiko Finance 2.0 was released today

• Velar AMM is now live with the first trading pairs

• Stacking DAO and ALEX are the largest DeFi apps on any Bitcoin L2

The Stacks DeFi ecosystem is heating up!

Many have kept their BTC holdings idle as no solutions were available to deploy them productively. 💤

sBTC will empower new Bitcoin-focused DeFi apps while enabling a top-notch usage experience.

The time to activate the Bitcoin economy is now. ⏲

Since AasyA app integrated Stacks lessons, more than 70k devs have started learning about the ecosystem.

Learning to deploy smart contracts to build DeFi apps on Stacks has never been simpler.

The more people learn coding on Stacks, the more Bitcoin DeFi will thrive.

Bitcoin is the most-known cryptocurrency worldwide.

Yet, there is not much built on top of it.

L2s are changing this by activating the Bitcoin economy.

DeFi, NFTs, and more are being built on Bitcoin with the goal of unlocking BTC capital.

One of the big unlocks for the Bitcoin economy is DeFi.

Stacks DeFi ecosystem has already around $300M in TVL, proving the demand for such services.

sBTC launch is poised to attract more liquidity as use cases focused on BTC emerge.

The public Nakamoto Testnet is live! 🎉

Great opportunity for Signers, Stackers, & Builders to get familiar with how the network will look like.

📖 Check out the Nakamoto rollout overview and find all testnet resources here:

https://stacks.org/nakamoto-testnet-instantiated

The public Nakamoto Testnet is live, but do you know what it means?

📅 Join the SIP call this Friday at 5 PM CET.

The AMA will cover the Nakamoto Testnet and offer guidance on how to get involved.🎙

https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1DXGyjyQvDEJM

Is interest regarding Bitcoin L2s truly picking up?

Signal21 charts clearly show Stacks growth in terms of network activity and active participants.

It will become even more interesting as the Nakamoto upgrade, and sBTC activates the Bitcoin economy.

The Bitcoin halving and Nakamoto upgrade are just around the corner. 🟧

Mark your calendar for the Building on Bitcoin virtual event on April 25. 📅

Join Bitcoin leaders as they unpack these significant milestones and what lies ahead for the ecosystem.

https://bitcoinunleashed.org

The Stacks ecosystem offers exciting news every week:

• ALEX closed a $10M funding round led by The Spartan Group

• Stacking DAO announced V2 to bootstrap a Signer network

• STXTools V3 is live with new tokens, data, and more

Don't miss out on what is happening on Stacks by receiving weekly updates with the StacksSnacks newsletter.
https://stackssnacks.com/p/stacks-reaches-close-800000-transactions-4th-month-row

Ordinals and BRC-20s have significantly boosted Bitcoin on-chain activity.

However, the Bitcoin ecosystem also needs scalable protocols and DeFi apps.

L2s like Stacks are making this possible.

With sBTC coming, builders will be able to create Bitcoin-focused apps.

The Stacks DeFi ecosystem is growing fast.

• New DEXs like Velar and Bitflow Finance

• Lending markets enabled by Zest Protocol

• Liquid Stacking power by Stacking DAO & LISA

• Vaults with Hermetica

With sBTC, they will unlock the Bitcoin economy.