Babylon Phase-1 Mainnet Staking Cap Extended to 10 Bitcoin Blocks Following High Demand

Babylon Bitcoin Staking Mainnet Phase-1, Cap 2 is a duration-based cap of 10 BTC blocks with no TVL limit.

TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands, Oct. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Babylon, the self-custodial Bitcoin Staking Protocol, will launch Cap 2 for its Phase 1 mainnet with a new duration-based cap set at 10 Bitcoin blocks where all valid transactions accepted in the 10 blocks will become active stake with no TVL limit. The minimum amount allowed per staking transaction will be 0.005 bitcoins and the maximum – 500 BTC in Cap 2, an increase from .05 in Cap 1. The unbonding transaction fee for Cap 2 stakes will be set to 0.00032 bitcoins.

Cap 2 will follow the successful launch of Phase-1 cap 1, which closed its 1000 BTC cap in 74 minutes from both native stakers and liquid staking protocols (LST) such as Solv protocols, Lorenzo, Bedrock, and others. The mission continues to unlock Bitcoin's $1.2 Trillion in value to secure PoS systems.

The high demand to participate in Phase 1 led to a spike in Bitcoin transaction fees with more than 50 BTC paid to miners in transaction fees. The first launch block included 70x more transaction fees than the previous non-launch block. Ultimately, 12,720 stakers staked with 21,000 staking transactions filling 6 Bitcoin blocks. Staking real-time stats can be found here.

Fisher Yu, Co-Founder and CTO of Babylon Labs, shared, "Following the successful Phase 1 mainnet launch with a 1,000 BTC cap, we are seeing the same high demand from native stakers, wallet users, and LST protocols to participate in the second cap of 10 BTC blocks. We are excited to see the supply of Bitcoin interested in providing security to other chains and networks."

Lixin Liu, the CEO of Keystone, said, "We are excited to highlight the groundbreaking opportunity it presents for Bitcoin holders to earn yields securely and self-custodially, without relying on third-party bridges to other chains. This innovation maximizes Bitcoin liquidity and yield potential while maintaining the highest security standards. By collaborating and participating in the Babylon ecosystem, we empower users to safely stake their BTC and engage in PoS security directly on the Bitcoin network, eliminating the need for third-party intermediaries."

Ben He, Founder & CEO of imToken, said, "Nearly 30% of Ether is currently being staked by holders to gain 3-5% in yield. This performance from the second-largest cryptocurrency demonstrates a clear market demand for a secure, trustless protocol that can put idle Bitcoin to work for staking yield. The Babylon protocol helps us pioneer in these innovative solutions. imToken is developing the product side, progressively introducing it to our user base."

As the only Bitcoin staking protocol that is self-custodial with BTC holders retaining control of their keys and value, the Babylon protocol paves the way to a new era for both institutional and retail Bitcoin holders to enhance the utility of their BTC. At the same time, PoS systems benefit from the security and liquidity supplied by BTC holders, lowering PoS inflation pressure and improving their tokenomics. The second cap of Phase-1 mainnet launch represents another step towards creating the framework for a Bitcoin-secured world.

For more information about the Babylon project, please visit:
Website: https://babylonlabs.io/learn Twitter: https://twitter.com/babylonlabs_io 

About Babylon
Babylon is a project that designs Bitcoin security-sharing protocols with a vision of building a Bitcoin-secured decentralized world. Its latest development is the world's first trustless and self-custodial Bitcoin staking protocol, which enables Bitcoin holders to stake their BTC on Proof-of-Stake (PoS) systems such as PoS chains, L2s, Data Availability (DA) layers, etc, enabling them to earn staking rewards without the need for third-party custody, bridge solutions, or wrapping services. Babylon's approach combines the high security and wide adoption of Bitcoin with the efficiency and scalability of PoS systems, increasing Bitcoin's utility. Babylon was founded in 2022 by Stanford Professor David Tse and Dr. Fisher Yu. Professor Tse is a member of the U.S. Academy of Engineering and is renowned as the inventor of the legendary proportional-fair scheduling algorithm for wireless communications. Babylon is led by a team of consensus protocol researchers and experienced layer 1 engineers from around the world.

SOURCE Babylon