Binance Labs pivots investment strategy towards Bitcoin DeFi

Binance Labs, the venture capital (VC) division of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has revealed its investment in BounceBit, a Bitcoin-native restaking protocol. BounceBit combines features of centralized finance (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) to enhance the utility of Bitcoin. This initiative is part of the emerging Bitcoin DeFi (BTCFi) trend, which aims to expand the use cases of Bitcoin beyond just being a store of value. BounceBit’s proof-of-stake (PoS) layer-1 ecosystem encourages validators to stake both Bitcoin and BounceBit ecosystem tokens, creating a dual-token economy that generates yield. BounceBit is currently serving over 110,000 users and has a total value locked (TVL) of more than $782 million. The growing interest in BTCFi is evident with the recent success of decentralized exchange MerlinSwap, which raised 6,599 Bitcoin worth $480 million during its initial DEX offering (IDO). This achievement showcases the demand for BTCFi and its potential to rival Ethereum in DeFi innovation. As the Bitcoin halving approaches on April 19, BTCFi protocols are gaining momentum and challenging the notion that Bitcoin-native DeFi was once considered impossible.