In an exciting development for the world of decentralized finance, Elastos—a key player in Web3 infrastructure—has successfully attracted $20 million in investment aimed at enhancing its Bitcoin (BTC) DeFi services.
Investment and Future Plans
Announced on January 30, the funding was provided by Rollman Management Digital, a prominent global investment network recognized for backing pioneering blockchain projects like Ripple and Ethereum.
With this new funding, Elastos now sits among the top five assets in Rollman’s investment portfolio.
Elastos plans to unveil its Bitcoin DeFi protocol in the second quarter of 2024.
This innovative platform will allow users to leverage their BTC as collateral, granting access to Ethereum smart contracts and enabling various swaps and DeFi functionalities.
Growing Bitcoin DeFi Landscape
The company joins a growing movement of firms working to integrate DeFi features within the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Competitors such as established layer-2 projects like Stacks, RSK, and Babylon have already made significant strides in building Bitcoin-native environments.
In a related development, Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has expanded its DeFi offerings with the introduction of BTC staking through Babylon.
As of January 30, the value locked in Bitcoin-centric DeFi applications exceeded $7.2 billion, according to data from DeFi aggregator DefiLlama.
This surge in interest reflects a broader trend toward Bitcoin-based financial solutions, especially following the recent approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) at the start of 2024.
Presently, U.S. Bitcoin ETFs boast over $124 billion in net assets, and after a brief lull, ETF buying momentum has picked up significantly in January.
This resurgence is largely fueled by positive market sentiment surrounding a potential pro-crypto administration under Donald Trump.
Future of DeFi and Bitcoin
Furthermore, recent changes at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, notably the appointment of Paul Atkins—an advocate for crypto-friendly policies—are expected to bolster the industry.
Such regulatory clarity can foster greater investor confidence, prompting more participants to explore opportunities within DeFi platforms.
Jacob Phillips, co-founder of the Bitcoin staking platform Lombard, predicts that as institutional adoption of Bitcoin continues to grow, it will pave the way for the creation of new DeFi strategies that utilize Bitcoin as collateral across varying risk profiles.
This evolution will leverage natural language processing techniques to enhance user experiences further.
Source: Cointelegraph
