Lending app Zest Protocol has officially launched its first lending marketplace on Stacks, the Bitcoin (BTC) Layer 2 (L2) platform, allowing BTC holders to participate in the on-chain cryptocurrency market. The development comes ahead of Stacks’ mid-capitalization upgrade, which aims to boost the Bitcoin Finance (BTCfi) ecosystem built using its infrastructure.
“A resilient capital market will be a major factor in Bitcoin reaching the next billion users,” said Munib Ali, co-founder and CEO of Trust Machines, who incubated the Zest protocol in its early stages. “The Zest team’s mission is to make bitcoin a truly viable global reserve asset over the next decade. the launch of the stack marketplace has helped them take the first step in redefining bitcoin lending.”
The anticipation of Bitcoin’s new protocol, Runes, which is set to go live after the halving event, has attracted the attention of investors. According to on-chain data aggregator DefiLlama, the BTCfi ecosystem has a total locked-in value (TVL) of more than $1.3 billion, with stacks accounting for more than 10 percent of that.
Tycho Onnasch, co-founder of Zest Protocol, commented, “While TVL on the stack is still small, the launch of a lending marketplace on the stack provides us with the opportunity to deploy smart contract infrastructure that will be used to lend and borrow BTC in a production environment. “”The growing Stacks DeFi ecosystem doesn’t have many leverage opportunities yet. the Zest protocol will provide these services while laying a solid foundation for our BTC lending marketplace launching later this year.””
In 2023, Zest Protocol was named one of the best Bitcoin lending platforms by Blockworks, and following the Least Authority audit in 2023, Zest Protocol successfully completed a second smart contract audit with Coinfabrik in 2024, underscoring its commitment to security and innovation.
