Core and BitGo sees increased interest from institutions wanting yield on their bitcoin
Core Blockchain Overview - February 27, 2025
Welcome to the Core Blockchain Overview. A one-stop-shop for the Core community to get up to speed on the network’s latest updates, metrics, releases, insights, ecosystem developments and more. All in one place.
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The Core blockchain by the numbers
Network’s daily transactions: 462.2K (+15.31%)
Total unique addresses: 41.87M (+3.64%)
ERC-20 daily tokens transferred: 53.6K (+21.55%)
Total CORE delegated: 168.4M (+1.86%)
Total BTC staked: 5,765 (+6.23%)
Top 3 Core validators by hybrid score:
The metrics are accurate at the time of publication. The percentage change is over a 14-day period.
Inside the network
🔸What we’re watching: There's a plethora of reasons why someone might pay attention to bitcoin. It could be for investment purposes, institutions wanting to earn yield, or someone who wants to build in Bitcoin’s decentralized finance (BTCFi) ecosystem.
Whatever the case may be, Core wants to offer products and solutions to a diverse group and in an organic way, said Initial Core Contributor Rich Rines said during its quarterly ecosystem webinar with Token Relations.
🔸Why it matters: To put things into perspective, bitcoin has always received substantial attention since its inception.
Over the years, there have been a number of bitcoin-focused products launched into the market. Recently, The Core Foundation partnered with Maple Finance, BitGo, Copper and Hex Trust to deploy lstBTC, a liquid token designed for institutions to earn yield on their bitcoin.
This opens up the door for more possibilities of what’s possible with bitcoin.
For BitGo, which launched back in 2013, it has seen product-market fit for users wanting to do more with their bitcoin, such as lending it out as collateral. However, the team has recently noticed an increase in institutional attention for bitcoin.
“[Historically, at BitGo], we saw some interest back when there was an opportunity for users to earn yield by lending out their bitcoin,” said BitGo’s Head of Ecosystem Sales Jake O. “There's a lot of interest and Core lets you do this from a non-custodial approach, and that’s the main message we want to send to institutions.”
Previously, bitcoin was such a moot topic for whether or not institutions should purchase the asset. With the release of the spot bitcoin ETF, these traditional companies have started to pay more attention to crypto in general – with some even going as far as putting it on their balance sheets.
Rines believes it's a matter of when, not if, for institutions to start exploring yield opportunities for bitcoin.
🔸The bigger picture: Core’s North Star is to help retail investors and institutions explore the capabilities of bitcoin and turn it from simply a store of value into an asset that people can use for DeFi activities.
Alongside Core’s new liquid staking token, lstBTC, the network looks to drive in on institutions and how they look at bitcoin, without adding unneeded complexities. With lstBTC, it lets participating users earn yield on their bitcoin while also being able to engage in DeFi protocols. Traditionally, users would lock their assets in order to earn yield on their holdings.
“This is an evolution and I think that's the right way to think about it where previously you either had to go stake or come onchain,” Rines said. “ Now you can do both. And by combining those, you increase greater capital efficiency and Core's DeFi ecosystem will have a variety of other opportunities for this.”
Scaling the ecosystem
Ceffu added Core to the list of supported networks for its enterprise-grade wallet platform
The Core blockchain saw growth in three categories over the past week, DappRadar data shows:
Total unique active wallets: 887.55K (+12.18%)
Incoming transactions: 1.27M (+8.3%)
dApp volume: $10.02M (+83%)
B14g, a bitcoin staking and yield-bearing protocol, hit $72.35M in TVL, according to DefiLlama
Learn about their new dualCORE token and how to earn up to 40% APY by staking CORE
Check out the Core blog for more updates.
Into the Core community
Do you miss the viral game Flappy Bird? Check out this livestream to learn more about Flappy Core - the crypto version of it
Learn more about BQ Labs and how its building a risk management for Bitcoin leverage Core’s technology
Lemon Drop, a platform designed to onboard users to Bitcoin more directly, completed its seed round and saw investment from Core Ventures
Portal hosted an X space with the Core community about why self-custody is so important
Featured headlines
You might have seen these Core-related headlines recently…
Searching for "Real Yield" on Bitcoin with Rich Rines (Bitcoin Rails Podcast)
Scaling the World's Hardest Asset: Rich Rines x Bitcoin Magazine (Core Blog)
Getting to the Core of What DeFi Technologies Has to Offer (Asymmetric Ventures)
Join in the fun
Want to dive deeper into the Core ecosystem?
Check out the Core Hacker House - an event from March 17-21 in India dedicated to builders in the Core ecosystem
Participate in BitFLUX’s Ignition campaign and earn rewards by using its DEX
If you partook in Season 2 of the Ignition Drop campaign, submit your feedback here
Core is hosting a hackathon for games building in the Core ecosystem - submit here for a chance to win a part of a $380K prize pool
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This product was built by Token Relations.
This information is for entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research.