Overview of Yala, upcoming TGE, is BTCFi the leader on Solana?

Yesterday, the Season 1 Airdrop rules were announced, and TGE is coming soon. How to participate in Yala?

Written by: Alex Liu, Foresight News

The Bitcoin native liquidity protocol Yala announced its Season 1 Airdrop details last night, which will open for claiming on the day of TGE. After launching on the Solana mainnet in May, the Solana Chinese community revealed that Yala will soon have its TGE. What is Yala's background, what is the protocol's principle, how is Season 1 distributed, and how can one participate in the future?

Yala is a Bitcoin-native liquidity protocol that mints the stablecoin YU by over-collateralizing BTC on the Bitcoin chain, linking the value of Bitcoin to multi-chain DeFi and real-world asset (RWA) yields. The protocol aims to enable Bitcoin holders to participate in the DeFi and RWA ecosystem without relinquishing ownership of their assets, thereby unlocking the long-idled value of Bitcoin.

Financing Situation

Yala completed a $8 million seed round financing in October 2024, co-led by Polychain Capital and Ethereal Ventures. Other participating investors in this round include Galaxy Vision Hill (Galaxy Digital), Amber Group, HashKey Capital, ABCDE Capital, Anagram, Ambush Capital, GeekCartel, L2 Iterative Ventures, SatoshiLab, UpHonest Capital, UTXO Management, 280 Capital, and other institutions.

The team stated that this round of funding will mainly be used to expand the technology and product teams, enhance security, and support various preparations before the mainnet launch. In addition, the Yala founding team disclosed that there is already a commitment of over 2,000 BTC for the initial collateral liquidity of the protocol, laying the foundation for the stable early operation of the platform.

In terms of strategic cooperation, Yala has joined the Circle Alliance Program and will explore the application scenarios of USDC in the Bitcoin ecosystem together with other protocols and institutions in the future. Thanks to the cooperation with Circle, holders can exchange YU stablecoin for USDC at a 1:1 ratio, providing YU with a trust endorsement through the wide acceptance and compliance of USDC.

Yala has also formed a strategic partnership with the Bitcoin Layer 2 network Stacks to integrate YU into Stacks' lending, staking, and insurance protocols, including Bitflow, Alex, Velar, Zest, etc., to enhance the liquidity and stability of the Stacks ecosystem. In July this year, Yala collaborated with the crypto payment gateway Alchemy Pay to launch the Yeti Card, allowing Bitcoin holders to make global purchases based on YU earnings.

Team Background

The Yala team members span across the fields of cryptocurrency and traditional finance. According to official information, the founders of Yala include former MakerDAO protocol architect, former Circle stablecoin engineer, Microsoft cloud infrastructure expert, and former Capital One derivatives trader. The team also gathers talent from institutions such as Lido, Binance Labs, Circle, Microsoft, and Alchemy Pay. Among them, co-founder and COO Kai-Tai Chan has worked at Binance and APX Finance, holding an MBA from Harvard Business School and extensive entrepreneurial experience.

Protocol Features

Yala adopts a modular design, with the core divided into several interrelated parts: Yala Bridge, Yala Network (MetaMint), and different user modes.

First, users deposit BTC through Yala Bridge and convert it to yBTC, which is a tokenized representation of Bitcoin (similar to wrapped tokens, but generated within Yala's own ecosystem), serving as collateral for subsequent operations. After receiving yBTC, users can directly mint YU stablecoins on the target chain (such as Ethereum, Solana, etc.) through the MetaMint module and participate in DeFi activities such as staking and lending across various chains.

MetaMint simplifies the cross-chain process — users can deposit BTC once and receive YU on other chains with a "one-click" solution, without the need to first convert to stablecoins on an exchange. Additionally, Yala offers a Regular User Mode (Lite Mode) and a Professional Mode (Pro Mode); regular users can simplify operations and achieve stable returns, while professional users can access advanced DeFi structured products such as Babylon and Ethena, gaining additional returns while maintaining exposure to BTC.

Yala's stablecoin YU is pegged to the US dollar and is fully collateralized by Bitcoin. Compared to traditional centralized stablecoins, YU features multi-chain compatibility and a profit-sharing mechanism: it can be used across various chains such as Ethereum and Solana, generating income for holders through activities like staking and lending. The stability of YU is maintained through various means such as over-collateralization, stable fees, and liquidation mechanisms. Unlike many stablecoins that rely on third-party custody, Yala distributes system profits to YU holders, allowing them to truly earn income from the protocol's operation.

In terms of design philosophy, Yala emphasizes a balance between decentralization and security. It is based on the most resilient off-chain state of Bitcoin, introducing programmability through the Ordinals protocol, and ensuring security through mechanisms such as a federated indexer network and multi-signature escrow. This means that Yala does not require centralized custody of BTC assets, but instead uses a decentralized indexer network to record the states of yBTC and YU off-chain, allowing for further decentralization in the future.

The team claims that the core of the Yala protocol lies in "true self-sovereignty": all BTC is always stored on the Bitcoin mainnet, and users maintain self-custody to avoid centralized risks. The project officially summarizes its three pillars as: security (BTC not leaving the chain, trust-minimized architecture), institutional-grade channels (RWA yield opportunities open to institutions and retail investors), and transparent risk management (auditable collateral and strategies).

In terms of user experience and ecological integration, Yala has several innovative highlights. For example, it has launched the PayFi Universe concept, allowing Bitcoin earnings to be used directly for daily consumption through the Yeti Card crypto card. The Yeti Card supports the global Visa/Mastercard network and is compatible with mobile payment methods such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. Users can "earn interest on their holdings and spend the interest," enabling them to pay for daily expenses like coffee and shopping without selling their BTC principal.

In addition, the Yala platform introduces AI Yield Agents (Yay-Agent), which achieve 24/7 automatic yields by integrating DeFi protocols and RWA products, providing users with stable annualized returns (e.g. Lite Mode fixed income 12%). Yala's DeFi Marketplace allows users to access liquidity protocols such as Raydium and Kamino on Solana across chains from a single interface, earning trading fees and compounding rewards with YU, and gaining additional incentives through Berries points.

How to participate

Taking the Ethereum mainnet as an example, users can deposit Bitcoin into the protocol through the Yala Bridge gateway to obtain an equivalent tokenized Bitcoin. Then, users can use yBTC as collateral to mint the YU stablecoin on Ethereum or other supported chains with one click using the MetaMint feature. Once minted, YU is directly deposited into the user's EVM chain wallet or Solana wallet. Subsequently, users can deposit YU into the protocol's stable pool to earn staking rewards or provide liquidity in the DeFi market (such as investing in the YU/USDC pool on Raydium).

All on-chain activities will generate rewards - as users earn YU, they can also receive Berries points granted by the platform. These points represent the user's ecological contribution and can be used in the future to exchange for rewards or participate in future Airdrops. Currently, users can also participate in activities such as the "Team Competition", forming teams to jointly participate in the lottery and further accumulate points.

Yala has launched various community incentive activities, including "Yeti Yell." Users can earn additional rewards by participating in activities, creating content, or completing official tasks. Meanwhile, Yala has issued a limited number of Soul-Bound Yetis NFTs as a badge of honor for early users and contributors. Currently, phase 0 of this NFT has ended, with a total of 1500 NFTs minted. Phase 1 and phase 2 will have 3000 and 5500 NFTs available for minting, respectively, targeting top-ranked users and ecosystem participants on the testnet and mainnet, and they have not yet been opened.

Season 1 Airdrop

The total amount of this round of Airdrop is 34 million YALA, accounting for 3.4% of the total supply. The reward targets include participants in the mainnet and testnet, content contributors, and early supporters. The claim period is 1 month. The snapshot date is July 8, 2025, and the specific allocation is as follows:

Mainnet Berries contributors: 30 million YALA; Mainnet Ice Berries (social and interactive tasks) contributors: 618,000; Testnet Berries participants: 322,000; Yeti Footprints content/research/feedback/technical contributors: 3 million; Yala Bonus Rewards special reward pool for early supporters: 60,000. Users can check their eligibility for claims on the website. Unclaimed portions will be automatically reclaimed and used for future Airdrops. The second season Airdrop event has started.