Staking gave ETH and SOL more than yield. It gave them a base to build an entire onchain ecosystem on.

Bitcoin's $1.3T has been waiting for that base, and that's what we're building toward with Stacks.

Here is what to expect for the next six weeks on Stacks:

~July 29: PoX-5 hardfork (pending SIP vote), paving the way for Bitcoin Staking.

Late August: the Genesis Bond, the first Bitcoin Protocol Bond on Stacks.

Stakers will need to restake STX after the fork. More details coming soon

What a bear market looks like on Stacks 🚢

The Stacks community has approved SIP-044 (Clarity 6) and SIP-045 (Bitcoin Staking), with over 99.99% of votes in favor of both proposals.

1) Clarity 6 adds built in functions for verifying Bitcoin transactions onchain.

2) PoX-5 enables self-custodial Bitcoin Staking: BTC locked on Bitcoin L1 alongside STX, earning BTC yield from miner bids via Proof of Transfer.

The two upgrades will ship together in the PoX-5 hard fork on ~July 29. The fork unlocks all stacked STX, so Stackers will need restack afterward to continue earning BTC rewards while signers, pools, and miners will upgrade nodes before activation.

Zest Protocol has launched Stacks Swap.

Stacks Swap compares liquidity pools across Stacks DEXs and returns the route with the best output for every trade.

The approved quote sets the worst-case price. The swap executes at that level or better, or not at all.

Read more about it here: https://x.com/ZestProtocol/status/2080187558156443856?s=20

The Bitcoin Staking Roadmap page is live

Track everything related to Bitcoin Staking: timelines, links, posts, and updates as they ship leading up to the official launch.

https://x.com/Stacks/status/2080398763169050766?s=20

The Stacks Q2 Ecosystem Report is now live.

The report covers institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth, and infrastructure milestones, including:

- Bitcoin Staking's preparations for Q3 launch
- Fireblocks and UTXO Management institutional partnerships
- Cumulative Stacks users past the 1.6M mark

Full report: https://www.stacks.co/blog/q2-2026

The Stacks Q2 Ecosystem Report is now live.

The report covers institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth, and infrastructure milestones, including:

- Bitcoin Staking's preparations for Q3 launch
- Fireblocks and UTXO Management institutional partnerships
- Cumulative Stacks users past the 1.6M mark

Full report: https://www.stacks.co/blog/q2-2026

Bitcoin-native finance grew in Q2 on Stacks:

Zest Protocol: $70M TVL with 780 BTC deposited
Bitflow: $5B cumulative volume
Stacking DAO: stBTC, the first Bitcoin LST
Hermetica: 75 hBTC filled in 24hrs

Stacks' Bitcoin-native finance ecosystem is growing with the upcoming Zest Protocol Stacks Vaults.

The vault introduces automated yield strategies that amplify Bitcoin yield sourced from Stacks Bitcoin Staking.

The mechanism is simple:
- Deposit BTC, sBTC, or stBTC into the vault. The deposit converts into stBTC, Stacking DAO's upcoming liquid staking token, which keeps earning Bitcoin Staking yield while remaining free to use elsewhere

- The stBTC in the vault serves as collateral to borrow sBTC, stake the borrowed sBTC again to receive more stBTC, and repeat the cycle to compound yield, targeting a 6-8% target APY

That's how Bitcoin Staking yield compounds further across the Stacks ecosystem.

Read more about it here: https://thedefiant.io/news/press-releases/zest-protocol-announces-stacks-vaults-bringing-automated-yield-strategies-to-bitcoin-native-finance

The PoX-5 upgrade has been activated successfully and without issues.

Core contributors have verified the activation through post-upgrade checks, and the network is producing blocks normally.

Signers and node operators completed their migrations ahead of activation, along with major exchange partners including Binance and Upbit. Deposits and withdrawals on migrated exchanges are operating as normal.

With the hardfork now live, here's what comes next: https://www.stacks.co/blog/the-stacks-pox-5-hardfork-is-live-what-comes-next

If you stake STX, one action this week: restake.

All staked STX unlocked when PoX-5 activated. Restake before Bitcoin block 962,050 and your BTC rewards keep flowing without missing a cycle.

Builders that received interim grants last Fall are shipping.

No-seed-phrase wallets, an sBTC data economy for AI agents, a trustless Runes bridge, on-chain gaming, and real commerce with STX/sBTC.

Check out the latest milestones and updates: https://stacks.foundation/july-grants-update

Reminder that every staker needs to restake after PoX-5.

All previously staked STX unlocked at activation, following the precedent of prior PoX upgrades.

Restake before Bitcoin block 962,050 to earn from the first post fork cycle. Rewards from the final pre fork cycle pay out normally.

Full guide: https://www.stacks.co/blog/how-to-restake-your-stx-after-the-pox-5-hard-fork

More than 200 applications were submitted for the Stacks Community DeGrants Cohort 4.

Six projects have been selected to share a combined $25,000 in funding.

Read more about the 6 projects selected to strengthen the Stacks ecosystem:
https://stacksendowment.co/blog/degrants-cohort-4

Stacks X Bitfinex: How Bitcoin Is Being Put To Work

Stacks gets the top spot at Bitfinex' latest Industry report on productive Bitcoin.

Bitfinex shared the productive Bitcoin overview on X featuring BlackRock and Stacks.

Read the full article here: Bitfinex - How Bitcoin is being put to work

Reminder: restack your STX before ~August 12 (Bitcoin block 962,050) to keep earning.

Here are quick tutorials based on the pool you are using: https://x.com/Stacks/status/2083267023916662923?s=20

The Genesis Bond officially has a block height 🟧

The bond runs during reward cycle 143, which starts at Bitcoin block 966,350.

→ Opens on Sept ~10
→ Enrollment closes Sept 9
→ First rewards are projected for Sept 17