Babylon TVL Surges By More Than $3.5B In One Week

Babylon, the surging Bitcoin staking protocol, has broken into the top 10 DeFi protocols by total value locked (TVL) after opening up to deposits for the third time.

On Dec. 17, Babylon’s Cap3, which allowed users to deposit BTC to Babylon for 1,000 Bitcoin blocks starting Dec. 10, came to a close. The initiative attracted roughly 33,290 BTC ($3.5 billion) from more than 112,000 users, including a single user that staked 10,000 ($1.04 billion).

Kairos Research, a cryptocurrency analysis company, noted that Babylon deposits outpaced inflows to spot Bitcoin ETFs from Dec. 10 through Dec. 12.

“We are blown away by the continued enthusiasm and high participation in Babylon Bitcoin Staking Protocol from both retail and institutional players,” said Fisher Yu, the CTO of Babylon Labs. “When BTC inflow into Cap-3 outweighed those into Bitcoin ETFs, it is a clear vote of confidence in our premise and shows the outsized demand in unlocking native use cases for Bitcoin.”

Roughly 135,290 users have now staked 57,290.4 BTC ($5.93 billion) via Babylon in total, ranking the project as the ninth-largest DeFi protocol above Sky (formerly MakerDAO) with $5.9 billion and behind Ethena with $6.03 billion. Depositors are currently earning Babylon points, which are expected to qualify holders for a future airdrop.

The recent growth comes after users piled 22,891 BTC into Babylon over the course of just 10 Bitcoin blocks during Babylon Cap-2 on Oct. 8.

Babylon’s roadmap

Babylon is building a Bitcoin-powered security layer for Proof of Stake (PoS) systems.

Babylon first plans to launch its own Bitcoin-secured PoS Chain, before later launching a marketplace that third-party networks and protocols can leverage for security.