Defi Llama Confirms Rootstock As The First And Biggest Bitcoin Sidechain

[PRESS RELEASE – London, United Kingdom, March 21st, 2024]

Capping a busy period for the cryptocurrency sector, the first and longest-standing Bitcoin sidechain, Rootstock (RSK), is seeing renewed momentum after a recent surge of developer activity, integrations and dApp launches 

• DeFi Llama has ranked Rootstock at the forefront of Bitcoin sidechains in terms of total value locked (TVL), boasting over half of the entire value stored within Bitcoin sidechains.
• Rootstock ecosystem was further enhanced with the addition of Symbiosis and Mean Finance for improved cross-chain swaps across many of the leading chains, Router Nitro for fluid asset transfers. SolidityScan for smart contract audits, and Asami, a groundbreaking dApp that helps web3 content creators monetise their social activity.
• The latest Build on Bitcoin event hosted by the Rootstock community will be held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 21st March from 7pm onwards at Poolside, Portugal’s leading web3 accelerator.

It’s been hard not to notice Bitcoin’s continued resilience, with its price currently reaching an all time high of $73,000 showcasing its sustained appeal and growing investor confidence. While external validation like this is always reassuring, internal developments within the Bitcoin blockchain are perhaps the most exciting thing happening in cryptocurrency.

New developments in the world of Bitcoin layer-2 networks have refocused attention on the incredible potential to expand functionality across Bitcoin. In an exciting development for the blockchain, Rootstock was recently ranked first by DeFi Llama, the largest TVL aggregator for decentralized finance (DeFi) in terms of TVL in Bitcoin sidechains. The platform found Rootstock had over 50% of all value locked in Bitcoin sidechains, affirming its status as the clear leader in this space.

Since launch, the Turing-complete sidechain has helped hundreds of apps to be built on top of Bitcoin, while making transactions cheaper, faster, and more scalable. Secured by over 60% of the hash power of Bitcoin through its merge mined consensus mechanism, Rootstock is considered the most secure smart contract platform in the world.

As the first and largest Bitcoin sidechain, Rootstock integrates with key players like Uniswap and Router Protocol and has achieved a remarkable 100% uptime throughout its lifetime. The incredible innovation has enabled developers to build cutting-edge products and services secured by Bitcoin well before this recent upturn. This includes the Bitcoin collateralized stablecoin protocol, Money on Chain, the Decentralised Exchange Sovryn and Tropykus, a lending and borrowing protocols focused on helping small businesses across Latin America access fairer and more equitable funding. Asami, a recent dApp to launch on Rootstock mainnet allows content creators to monetise their efforts in a truly decentralised way.

In the past month, a wave of projects and updates have been announced by the Rootstock community including a revamped Rootstock Explorer, the integration of Symbiosis and Mean Finance for simplified cross-chain swaps, a successful governance vote for Uniswap V3 to be deployed on Rootstock, the integration of Router Nitro for efficient asset transfers and the inclusion of RBTC in SafePal’s wallet suite. A number of third-party block explorers such as Blockscout and 3xpl have also added support for Rootstock.

The next major milestone for Rootstock will be the anticipated release of the Arrowhead 6.0.0 upgrade which includes a number of key Rootstock Improvement Proposals (RSKIPs) proposed by the community of developers contributing to the network. These upgrades are focused on increasing Ethereum compatibility and reducing transaction costs. Arrowhead will go live on April 3, 2024, at the #6,223,700 block. Ahead of this it is expected that the core contributors to the network will also share a roadmap of proposed improvements to the network for 2024 focused on further trust minimisation and the integration of cutting edge technologies to ensure Rootstock remains as a leader in the Bitcoin L2 space.

One of the key drivers of growth of Rootstock has been its ability to attract solidity developers from other leading blockchains such as Ethereum due to its compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) facilitating a seamless transition to a platform that combines Bitcoin’s security with Ethereum’s functionality. Today Rootstock is the only EVM compatible Bitcoin sidechain live and battle tested on mainnet. The Bitcoin sidechain has gone from strength-to-strength since launch with over 2,700 Bitcoin locked in its 2way Peg and over $250m of value deployed across the various dApps live on the network. Rootstock recently experienced its highest ever transactions in a single day at the end of 2023 and active users continue to grow daily. Supported by an incredible community of developers, Rootstock’s potential now seems limitless.

Alongside this, Rootstock continues to host notable global events for its community. In the coming weeks, the Rootstock community will host another such event on the 21st of March from 7pm onwards at Poolside, Lisbon, the country’s leading Web3 accelerator. As always, the community’s in-person meetups offer valuable insights and networking opportunities for entrepreneurs, developers, and crypto enthusiasts interested in gaining more from the Bitcoin ecosystem.