Bitlayer Launches Mainnet: Trust-Minimized Bitcoin DeFi with YBTC Token

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Bitlayer’s BitVM Bridge Debuts Its Mainnet, Offers Trust-Minimized <a href="https://jpygbp.com/btc-usd/">Bitcoin</a> DeFi

What to know:

  • Bitlayer’s BitVM Bridge launched its mainnet on Wednesday, providing a trust-minimized framework for bitcoin liquidity in decentralized finance.
  • The bridge uses a smart contract to lock BTC, ensuring security through a system that allows honest participants to expose fraudulent activities.
  • Central to the bridge is the YBTC token, pegged 1:1 with BTC, which enables BTC holders to engage in DeFi activities.

In this article

BTCBTC$118,656.92◢1.64%

Bitlayer’s BitVM Bridge launched its mainnet on Wednesday, enabling bitcoin

liquidity for decentralized finance through a trust-minimized framework.

The bridge ensures the security of users’ Bitcoin by storing it within a BitVM intelligent contract. This contract assumes that there is at least one trustworthy market participant who stands ready to reveal any dishonest attempts to transfer funds and expose such malicious activity.

In this decentralized approach, it differs significantly from conventional methods that rely on centralized control or shared custody models.

For the past twelve months, our team has been heavily invested in building the BitVM bridge, and we are ecstatic to now present this achievement to our valued community, as expressed by Bitlayer’s co-founder, Kevin He, in a statement sent exclusively to CoinDesk.

Following the mainnet launch, our priorities will be expanding asset compatibility and strengthening connections with more blockchain networks. This was his statement.

YBTC, a gateway to BTC DeFi

At the heart of Bitlayer lies YBTC, a token that serves as a direct representation of users’ locked bitcoins. Its worth is fixed at a ratio of 1:1 with BTC, thereby offering decentralized finance opportunities to Bitcoin holders who wish to earn extra returns by enabling them to stake, lend, borrow, trade, and supply liquidity across various multi-chain decentralized exchanges.

The safety of this token is rooted firmly in the transparent and verifiable BitVM smart contract, contrasting with wrapped Bitcoin (like WBTC) that depends on a trusted central authority for holding the real Bitcoin.

Keep in mind that YBTC differs from Bitlayer’s internal token, BTR. The primary role of BTR is for governance, transaction fees, and staking purposes within the Bitlayer system. It’s planned to appear on significant centralized trading platforms.

Front-and-reclaim model

Generally speaking, getting rid of central authorities often means longer delays, particularly for systems designed to prevent fraud such as Bitlayer. However, in this case, since transactions are presumed to be trustworthy, others who observe the process can intervene to verify that everything is running smoothly if an issue arises.

During the standard seven-day hold, essential security verifications take place, enabling potential fraudulent transactions to be disputed. Consequently, this may result in extended waiting periods for withdrawals.

Instead of Bitlayer holding onto the Bitcoin during withdrawals and waiting seven days for security, it uses a unique “borrow-and-return” strategy. This involves delegating the waiting period to specialized brokers or external liquidity providers. These entities quickly supply the requested BTC to users, sourced from their own funds. Later, once the initial seven-day safety period has elapsed, they recover their funds from the smart contract.

This approach offers both trustless security and a fast, convenient user experience.

The designer explained to CoinDesk that there’s a mechanism in the BitVM bridge setup where users who initiate a pegout receive their Bitcoin back at the interval of each Bitcoin block, however, the duration they have to wait is determined by the broker or operator.

Expansive ecosystem

Bitlayer is focusing on connecting with the Ethereum main network and prominent layer 2 solutions like Polygon, Optimism, and zkSync, while also investigating Solana’s and Bitcoin’s native layer 2 technologies, such as applications based on the Lightning Network. The company has already established connections with other leading ecosystems, which include Sui, Base, Starknet, Arbitrum, Sonic, Plume Network, and Sundial.

BitLayer aims to ensure that YBTC can be easily accessed in any location where there’s substantial DeFi liquidity, facilitating a smooth and safe transfer of Bitcoin across various platforms as stated to CoinDesk by the team.

The team announced its intention to create a security panel, make public their audit findings, organize bug bounty programs, and publish their source code publicly. This strategy will map out BitLayer’s BitVM Bridge as an essential element of Bitcoin’s infrastructure within the realm of Decentralized Finance (DeFi).

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2025-07-16 11:55