Bitcoin hits new high! Market sentiment turns optimistic

Bitcoin Market Insights: Bitcoin reached a record high of $123,091 this week, with optimistic market sentiment. MicroStrategy purchased an additional 4,225 Bitcoins for $472 million, bringing its total holdings to 601,550 BTC. Grayscale, issuer of the GBTC ETF, submitted a confidential IPO application to the SEC.
BTCFi Investment Opportunities: The Bitcoin DeFi market grew by 13.5% this week, reaching $7.2 billion in total locked value. Key updates include:
- Stacks: The SIP-031 proposal received over 96% approval, and sBTC is expected to launch soon. Stacks introduced self-custody sBTC and partnered with Nansen for on-chain data analysis.
- Stacks Ecosystem: Wormhole integrated sBTC for cross-chain DeFi, and the STX DEFI SZN task activity launched its second phase. Arkadiko saw a 3.26% increase in USDA holders.
- CoreDAO: Adjusted staking tiers for CORE tokens and integrated Houdini Swap for privacy-focused cross-chain swaps.
- Babylon: Announced a roadmap for its Genesis EVM and multi-stake mainnet, with Bitcoin liquidity applications planned for 2026. Its total locked value hit $5.25 billion.
Key Takeaways: Bitcoin's price surge and institutional investments highlight growing confidence, while BTCFi projects like Stacks, CoreDAO, and Babylon are driving innovation in Bitcoin-based DeFi and staking.

Bitcoin Market Insights

This week, Bitcoin hit a record high of $123,091. Market sentiment is relatively optimistic, and listed companies continue to increase their holdings of Bitcoin. Grayscale, the issuer of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC), has submitted a confidential IPO application in the United States.

Strategy spends another $472 million to buy Bitcoin: MicroStrategy, founded by Michael Saylor,bought another 4,225 Bitcoins, bringing its total holdings to 601,550 BTC. The average price MicroStrategy paid for Bitcoin this time was $111,827 per coin.
Grayscale submits confidential IPO application to the US SEC: Grayscale said it has submitted an application to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the listing of the company's shares under a new provision that allows confidential filings before the final public offering. Grayscale is the issuer of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC), which is the earliest Bitcoin trust product and currently has $21.7 billion in assets under management .

BTCFi Investment Opportunities

The Bitcoin DeFi market continues to grow, with total locked value increasing 13.5% this week to $7.2 billion.

Here are the main ecosystem project updates you need to know:

Stacks

Stacks is the leading Bitcoin Layer-2 network that can implement smart contracts and DeFi directly on Bitcoin.

SIP-031 voting update: According to the recent Stacks community meeting information , the SIP-031 proposal received more than 96% of the votes in favor, with voting rights approaching 230 million STX. In addition to SIP-031, sBTC is expected to be listed for trading in the next few weeks.
Satoshi upgrades introduce self-custody sBTC : Since Stacks has full access to the Bitcoin ecosystem and is tightly integrated with Bitcoin L1, Stacks can introduce post-conditions to manage the custody function of the underlying Bitcoin. One application example is lending, where the application can stipulate in its Clarity contract that BTC will be released to a specific Bitcoin address when liquidated.
Partnership with Nansen: Nansen has successfully integrated Stacks for on-chain data analysis. Users can now track real-time activities on Stacks, such as daily transactions, user flows, smart contract deployments, and DeFi activities.

Stacks Ecosystem

Wormhole integrates sBTC: Wormhole technology enables sBTC to become a new generation of Bitcoin DeFi application infrastructure across multiple blockchains.
The second phase of STX DEFI SZN task activity is now online: The first phase of the task focuses on stablecoins. Users can obtain income from the 50,000 STX reward pool by completing on-chain Bitcoin DeFi tasks.
Arkadiko Q2 users continue to grow: Signal 21's latest report shows that despite a slight decrease in total locked value, the number of cumulative USDA holders increased by 3.26% month-on-month to 7,508. In the second quarter, Arkadiko introduced a quarterly revenue-based repurchase and destruction mechanism for $DIKO tokens, enhancing the long-term value consistency of holders.

Arkadiko's cumulative USDA holders increased by 3.26%

Source: Signal21

CoreDAO

CoreDAO is one of the leading BTCFi ecosystems in terms of total locked value. CoreDAO is building the foundational layer of on-chain Bitcoin finance, including staking, structured products, and institutional access.

Dual Currency Staking Tier Update: After a successful governance vote , the Satoshi Tier will be adjusted to 34,000 CORE per 1 BTC, and the Super Tier will be adjusted to 12,750 CORE per 1 BTC. These tiers took effect on July 14.
Houdini Swap is now available on Core: Houdini Swap is a cross-chain swap and bridge aggregator that supports more than 100 blockchains. When users use Houdini to bridge to Core, their wallet history, balance, or on-chain identity information will not be exposed.

Babylon

Babylon is currently the leading project in the field of Bitcoin re-staking, with a total locked value of US$5.25 billion .

Babylon announced its latest roadmap: Babylon plans to launch its Genesis EVM and multi-stake mainnet in the fourth quarter of 2025. The Bitcoin liquidity application will be released in the first quarter of 2026.
Babylon Bitcoin's total locked value reaches US$5.25 billion : After the BSN multi-staking function is launched, Bitcoin will eventually provide users with a channel to earn multiple rewards.

Babylon latest roadmap

Source: Babylon