274: Scaling Bitcoin DeFi — Charlie on Bitlayer, BTR launch & unlocking $1T in liquidity

In this episode, Charlie, co-founder of Bitlayer, shares how they are building a Bitcoin rollup and trust-minimized BVM bridge to unlock BTC liquidity for DeFi while maintaining Bitcoin-level security.

Backed by Franklin Templeton and top mining pools like F2Pool, Bitlayer is enabling yield-bearing BTC (YBTC), partnerships with Sui and Solana, and preparing for the launch of its BTR governance token.

If you’re curious about Bitcoin’s future beyond payments — from miner incentives to cross-chain DeFi — this episode is for you.

Key Timestamps

[00:00:00] Introduction: Sam introduces Charlie and Bitlayer’s mission.

[00:01:00] Charlie’s Web3 story: From early Bitcoin and Ethereum to Polygon and Polkadot.

[00:03:30] Why Bitcoin DeFi: Recognizing the need for scaling and security.

[00:05:00] Bitlayer’s mission: Building a BVM rollup and bridge for DeFi on Bitcoin.

[00:07:00] Achieving Bitcoin DeFi: Unlocking BTC liquidity via a trust-minimized bridge.

[00:09:00] Bridging innovation: How BVM improves on multisig and wrapped BTC.

[00:11:00] Bitlayer vs sidechains: Why Bitcoin rollups are different.

[00:14:00] Team strength: Engineering talent from Polygon, Celestia, and Alibaba.

[00:15:00] Metrics: TVL milestones, daily transactions, and wallet growth.

[00:18:00] Developer & user growth: Strategies to onboard devs and create retention.

[00:20:00] Branding: F1-style “Bitcoin engine” culture.

[00:21:00] Decentralization focus: Ensuring Bitcoin-level security.

[00:23:00] Partnerships: Collaborations with Sui and upcoming Solana integrations.

[00:25:00] Future vision: Bitcoin DeFi in 2 years — retail + institutional products.

[00:26:30] Institutional adoption: Working with ETF issuers like Franklin Templeton.

[00:28:00] The BTR token: Governance launch and upcoming campaigns.

[00:30:00] Closing thoughts: Miner incentives and the next decade of Bitcoin utility.

Connect

https://www.bitlayer.org/

https://x.com/BitlayerLabs

https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlieyechuanhu/

https://x.com/CharlieHusats

Disclaimer

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