Why are large funds quietly accumulating Bitcoin?

In the context of Bitcoin increasingly surpassing its traditional role as a store of value, financial infrastructure platforms like Maestro are leading this wave of transformation by building a comprehensive Bitcoin Finance ecosystem (BitcoinFi). Recently, Maestro announced the report "BitcoinFi Situation", revealing important advancements in making Bitcoin the foundation for modern financial activities – from trading, lending to issuance of stablecoins – ushering in a new era of convergence between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) right on Bitcoin's own blockchain.

Maestro believes that the activity volume on BitcoinFi will continue to rise sharply, as more and more businesses hold BTC as part of their treasury management strategy, and passive capital sources are activated to generate profits as well as serve new financial purposes.

"We are witnessing the convergence of traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) in a capital market valued in Bitcoin," said Mr. Marvin Bertin – Co-founder and CEO of Maestro. "For the first time since 2009, the financial ecosystem on Bitcoin has completed crucial pieces such as exchanges, lending platforms, and stablecoins. Bitcoin is transforming from a passive store of value into a truly dynamic, efficient, and scalable financial system."

Staking and Lending: The main drivers pushing BitcoinFi beyond the 10 billion USD mark

With a total locked value of (TVL) exceeding 68,500 BTC – equivalent to 7.39 billion USD – staking has quickly become the most popular application in the BitcoinFi ecosystem. Notably, restaking activity is growing steadily, with the volume of BTC restaked reaching up to 3.32 billion USD. This indicates that the staking and restaking sectors are currently backing over 10 billion USD in asset value, reflecting the rapid expansion of profit-generating protocols on the Bitcoin platform.

Among them, Babylon is currently leading with an impressive scale of 4.79 billion USD. However, platforms like Solv, Lombard, and CoreDAO are continuously innovating, driving the development of liquidity staking models (LST), strategic restaking, and dual token security mechanisms. In the native Bitcoin lending space, Liquidium stands out with a trading volume exceeding 500 million USD – playing a pioneering role in expanding the utility of BTC in decentralized lending applications.

Another notable new form of staking is dual staking, introduced by CoreDAO. This model has attracted over 615 million USD in BTC staking, thanks to attractive incentives such as block rewards in the native CORE token and sharing transaction fees between stakers and validators.

However, alongside impressive growth figures, the BitcoinFi ecosystem still faces several challenges. Many current staking protocols have yet to generate competitive returns compared to government bond interest rates, while liquidity and yield remain fragmented across various chains and platforms. The question arises: Can the BTC-backed network model sustain sustainable rewards in the long term? – is still a topic closely monitored by investors.

Source: Maestro## Programmable Layer: Expanding the potential of Bitcoin beyond its traditional role

The Bitcoin ecosystem is undergoing a strong transformation as scaling layers – especially programmable layers – increasingly attract the attention of the developer community and users. TVL on Bitcoin and Layer 2 (L2) currently stands at around $5.52 billion (equivalent to 52,000 BTC). This figure indicates a significant increase in demand for interaction with native smart contracts, optimizing asset allocation, profit mining, while still ensuring the right to self-custody of assets and payment guarantees – the core characteristics of Bitcoin.

Among the scaling solutions, Stacks stands out by doubling its TVL in Q2, contributing an additional approximately 2,000 BTC to the ecosystem. Although sidechains currently still dominate in terms of the amount of assets held in BitcoinFi, the architecture of this ecosystem is gradually diversifying with the emergence of layer roll-ups and execution layers, promising to open up a more flexible and efficient development space.

One of the biggest barriers of Bitcoin – its original design not being intended for programmability – is gradually being dismantled. While Ethereum is leading the DeFi market with over 116 billion USD TVL, Bitcoin-compatible scaling layers have only recorded over 5.5 billion USD. However, the growth rate of sidechains, rollups, and new programming environments is creating momentum for Bitcoin to escape its role as a mere store of value and move towards becoming a versatile financial platform.

Source: Maestro## Ordinals, BRC-20 and Rune reshape activities on the Bitcoin network

Super protocols like Rune, Ordinals, and BRC-20 are increasingly taking center stage in the Bitcoin ecosystem, accounting for up to 40.6% of total transactions on the network in the first half of 2025. Notably, BRC-20 recorded a trading volume of 128 million USD, indicating a growing demand for programmable assets on the Bitcoin blockchain.

After the adjustment phase last year, Ordinals has made a strong comeback, with over 80 million (inscriptions) recorded as of mid-2025. These activities have generated 6,940 BTC in transaction fees – equivalent to about 681 million USD, becoming a significant source of revenue for the Bitcoin mining ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Rune – the protocol focused on tokenomics and the ability to mint assets on Bitcoin – is gradually recovering after a sharp decline at the end of 2024. Recovery signals from Rune are being closely monitored by investors as part of the trend of Bitcoin shifting towards the role of a platform for programming digital assets.

Source: Maestro### Stablecoin on BitcoinFi: Strong growth but still facing infrastructure challenges

Stablecoins are emerging as one of the most important pieces in the completion of the BitcoinFi ecosystem. With a TVL of 860 million USD – an increase of over 42% compared to the previous quarter – this type of asset is gradually becoming popular, driven by the rapid development of open layers (L2) and the growing demand for native Bitcoin stablecoin models.

The CDP-based stablecoins ( collateralized debt position like USDa from Avalon are leading this wave, with a TVL of 559 million USD – a testament to the growing trust from users in collateral-backed stablecoin models. Additionally, yield-generating stablecoins like Hermetica, with an APY of up to 25%, also demonstrate the potential of stablecoins as a capital generation tool and profit optimization in the BitcoinFi environment.

However, behind that growth wave, there are still many infrastructure barriers that need to be addressed. One of the biggest challenges is the fragmented liquidity between different layers and protocols, which hinders smooth transaction processing and limits market depth.

In addition, the oracle design for CDP stablecoins is still a weakness, as it directly affects the reliability of the collateral asset pricing system. At the same time, these models also face a trade-off between configurability, performance, and decentralization – a problem that is not easily solvable in the inherently conservative structure of Bitcoin.

![])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-47529f2895e91db3af86af79ebb9d717.webp(Source: Maestro) Venture capital is returning to BitcoinFi: Prioritizing a shift towards application and user experience.

After a period of stagnation, the BitcoinFi sector is witnessing a strong return of venture capital investment. In the first half of 2025, total capital raised surged to 175 million USD, through 32 funding rounds, marking a significant recovery in interest from investment funds. Notably, 20 out of the 32 deals focused on DeFi segments, user applications, and asset custody, indicating a shift in focus from technical infrastructure to usability and end products.

Unlike previous funding cycles that leaned towards building infrastructure platforms, investors are now focusing their attention on projects capable of deploying real-world products, providing direct user experiences, and expanding the application of Bitcoin in everyday financial life. In this context, initiatives related to smart wallets, Bitcoin-native DeFi tools, and decentralized custody solutions are attracting more capital than ever.

Major players such as Pantera Capital, Founders Fund, and Standard Crypto have confirmed the increasingly important position of BitcoinFi, viewing it as one of the most promising niche markets in the cryptocurrency industry. Notable investment deals from these funds not only target the depth of infrastructure but also clearly reflect the growing appeal of the application layer, where Bitcoin is expanding from its role as a store of value to practical financial functions.

![]###https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-59686eb8d754aab4425df93c4e4ab569.webp(Source: MaestroTaylor