Babylon Labs teams up with SatLayer to unlock DeFi for Bitcoin

Babylon Labs has partnered with Castle Island Ventures-backed SatLayer to bring the benefits of Bitcoin staking and restaking to more users.

The move aims to offer Bitcoin (BTC) holders the opportunity to explore the decentralized finance ecosystem around the world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency.

Babylon, whose total value locked has surpassed $2 billion, is a leading BTC staking protocol. The platform eyes further liquidity, shared security, and capital efficiency for BTC holders in this partnership, according to a press release.

SatLayer will enable this functionality by offering restaking opportunities for users of the Babylon protocol. The partners plan to tap into smart contracts to allow for programmable BTC slashing.

In proof-of-stake mechanisms, slashing allows for the punishment of validators’ bad behaviour. The implementation of the mechanism opens up Bitcoin’s utility within the DeFi ecosystem. Users staking BTC help secure PoS chains, rollups, and decentralized applications across the rapidly expanding decentralized finance market.

“Babylon Labs and SatLayer share a vision for Bitcoin’s future as the cornerstone of decentralized ecosystems. Together, we enable applications and infrastructure to harness Bitcoin’s unmatched security while expanding its liquidity through programmable restaking frameworks. The launch of SatLayer’s devnet opens up a new era of Bitcoin-powered innovation for builders everywhere.”

Luke Xie, co-founder of SatLayer.

The collaboration between Babylon Labs and SaltLayer significantly improves staking and restaking on Bitcoin, the platforms said.

Babylon Labs has secured the backing of major venture capital firms in the industry, including Paradigm, which led its $70 million round in June. The protocol also attracted investment from Binance’s incubation and venture capital arm in February 2024.

The $2 billion TVL protocol has partnered with ecosystem players such as Solv Protocol, Lombard and Bedrock to expand the Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem via liquid staking tokens. On Nov. 25, Babylon Labs and Lombard teamed up to bring Bitcoin staking to Sui.

Babylon’s offering allows Bitcoin holders to stake BTC across PoS chains, layer-2 networks and data availability layers, with users earning staking rewards.