BTC (Re) Staking and Anchor Asset Market Competition Analysis

Recently, with the launch of the first phase of the Babylon mainnet, the introduction of BTC LST by Pendle, and the release of various BTC wrapped assets, BTCFi has once again become the focus of market attention. This article will explore the latest developments in BTC (re) staking and the field of BTC pegged assets.

BTC (Re) staking market competition intensifies

The current competition for BTC LST is becoming increasingly fierce, with all parties vying for the staking income entry point of BTC and its wrapped assets. In the past 30 days, a certain protocol has achieved rapid growth, reaching the highest TVL with a deposit amount of 5.9k BTC, surpassing another protocol that had long been in a leading position. This growth is mainly attributed to strategic cooperation with top re-staking protocols, providing participants with richer re-staking income sources and DeFi participation opportunities from the ETH ecosystem.

Ecological strategy becomes the key to BTC LST competition

In the BTC LST space, ecological strategy has become a decisive factor in the current competitive landscape. Unlike ETH LRT, which benefits from a mature DeFi ecosystem, BTC LST faces more complex considerations, including downstream DeFi application scenarios, the development stage of BTC L2, the combination with various chain BTC pegged assets, and integration with re-staking platforms. Different BTC LST providers have adopted different strategic routes:

1. A certain protocol focuses on the development of the ETH ecosystem, providing rich external rewards through collaboration with multiple platforms, while actively promoting leveraged play of its tokens on ETH.

2. Other protocols actively engage in multi-chain expansion while developing upstream deposit reception and downstream application construction.

3. There are also some protocols that focus on building the BNB chain in the initial stage, supporting the reception of BTCB deposits and minting the corresponding LST.

These different ecological strategies not only affect the growth rate and market share of various BTC LSTs, but also influence the liquidity of BTC pegged assets and the adoption of DeFi within each ecosystem.

Pendle Enters BTCFi

A certain liquidity protocol has integrated multiple BTC LSTs into its rewards market, providing BTC LST holders with more opportunities for optimized yield strategies. The addition of this platform will greatly promote the broader application of BTC LST in the DeFi ecosystem.

New Players Entering the Re-Staking Market

New participants are joining the BTC re-staking market, competing with existing platforms. These platforms accept BTC LST for re-staking and use it to provide security for other protocols. As more and more homogeneous re-staking platforms emerge, the competition for liquidity in BTC and its variant assets will become increasingly fierce.

BTC Wrapped Token Market Landscape

The competition in the wrapped BTC market has intensified, with multiple alternative assets vying for market share. Major competitors include wrapped BTC tokens from different platforms, as well as various BTC LST assets.

A large exchange recently launched packaged assets supported by its custody, which have gained support from multiple mainstream DeFi protocols and plan to expand to more chains. This move demonstrates the potential of this asset in the development of BTCFi.

Despite security concerns, WBTC still holds over 60% of the wrapped BTC market share. Its issuer recently announced plans to deploy WBTC on multiple new chains, adopting a full-chain fungible token standard in an attempt to consolidate its market position through multi-chain expansion. However, the adoption rate of WBTC continues to decline, with several leading DeFi protocols starting to remove it as collateral.

Another wrapped BTC asset FBTC is also actively expanding, deployed on multiple chains, and promoting its widespread adoption in the BTCFi sector through incentive programs.

Conclusion

In the trend of continuous growth of BTCFi, BTC (re) staking and BTC pegged assets are two key sectors worth paying attention to. There is a trend of excessive construction on the supply side in the BTC (re) staking field, while the market size on the demand side remains uncertain. The trend of various BTC pegged assets being nested with each other has also introduced new systemic risks. For BTC pegged assets, trust remains a key issue, and all parties are actively developing their own solutions in an attempt to capture the market share lost by WBTC.