Botanix Labs, the Harvard-founded Bitcoin Layer 2, launches stBTC—a 1:1 BTC-backed token redistributing 50% of network fees as yield, audited by Spearbit and Sigma Prime for EVM compatibility.
Botanix launches a decentralized Bitcoin sidechain on testnet with a 16-node federation, using the Spiderchain protocol for EVM-compatible dApps. Mainnet set for Q3 2025.
BitReXe is a proposed Layer 2 architecture to build out multiple EVM's on top of Bitcoin that can run in parallel, accomplishing more scalable smart contract execution on a second layer.
Willem Schroe, founder of Botanix Labs, discusses the reasons why his company is working on a decentralized second layer to bring the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to Bitcoin.