Merlin Chain H1 2024 Report: The Rise of Bitcoin’s Largest Layer 2
2024 marked the year Merlin Chain burst onto the scene as the leading force in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
This recap will guide you through Merlin Chain’s transformative trajectory over the past six months, focusing on our progress in network expansion, community growth, ecosystem development, security enhancements, economic achievements, and the lessons we’ve learned.
For more achievements of Merlin Chain in the first half of the year, please read our full report here:
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Merlin Chain’s Highlights
- Network Mass Adoption: $1.2 billion TVL, $16 billion bridge volume, 1.9 million unique addresses, and 12.7 million transactions. 80% of Bitcoin native asset holders are Merlin Chain users.
- Record-Breaking Organic Growth: $3.9B TVL within 50 days after Mainnet launch, 88% in Bitcoin-native assets. M-BTC reached a $1.2 billion market cap by H1 2024.
- Major BTC Hub: Bridged $16B worth of BTC, nearly $1 billion spot trading, more than $1 billion perpetual trading, and $1 billion cross-chain yield generation.
- Bitcoin-Native Assets Empowerment: High engagement with Bitcoin communities, including BITMAP, BRC-20, BRC-420, and Ordinals NFTs, with some assets achieved over 90% staking ratio. Nearly $2 billion DEX trading volume and $78 million liquidity by H1 2024.
- Thriving dApp Ecosystem: 200+ dApps, including industry-leading applications such as the №1 BRC-20/RUNES Bridge (UniCross), №1 Bitcoin Liquidity Restaking Protocol (Solv Protocol), №1 DEX for Bitcoin Derivatives (Surf Protocol), №1 Bitcoin Lending Protocol (Avalon Labs), №1 Bitcoin-Native DEX (MerlinSwap), №1 Bitcoin Launchpad (Merlin Starter) and more.
- Fair Token Distribution: Tokens fairly distributed to the community. $MERL’s inflation slows significantly, to only 0.4% in the next 12 months and 5.5% in 24 months, ensuring long-term growth.
Network Growth
Merlin Chain has grown into the top Layer 2 with a strong community foundation and active user base.
Financial
The tokenomics of Merlin Chain’s token, $MERL, is intentionally designed to be community focused and holder friendly. 20% of the total supply is allocated to Merlin’s Seal, the largest fair launch, and distributed within 6 months, while an additional 16.57% of tokens are earmarked for community rewards through various ecosystem initiatives.
The second half of 2024 will see a significant slowdown in $MERL’s emissions, with 0.4% of the total supply schedeuled for release in the next 12 months. Notably, the release schedule for the team will be 0% for first 12 months, and only 1.4% for 24 months later, ensuring long-term alignment with with Merlin Chain’s sustainable growth.
Ecosystem Development
Merlin Chain has onboarded over 200 dApps, including BTCFi, DeFi, Games, Metaverse, and more. Builders on Merlin Chain have established themselves as industry leaders and innovative thinkers building in the Bitcoin ecosystem, making Merlin Chain the most vibrant ecosystem in the Bitcoin space.
Security and Decentralization
Merlin Chain has rolled out a comprehensive suite of security frameworks alongside innovative chain architecture, and implemented strategic collaborations to elevate the network with security, scalability, and transparency.
- Technical Architecture: Merlin Chain has implemented a multi-token staking oracle node system, where sequencer nodes are responsible for collecting and batch-processing transactions generating compressed transaction data, ZK state roots, and proofs. The Oracle network compiles and uploads this data to the Bitcoin Mainnet’s Taproot, making it publicly accessible to the entire network. Merlin Chain’s decentralized architecture effectively mitigates risks associated with single points of failure and centralization and can be publicly verified anytime.
- Strategic Partnerships: Collaborations with Celestia for data availability and Cobo for advanced MPC wallet security enhance data integrity and asset protection. The Merlin Security Council, featuring top security firms, oversees ecosystem protection.
- Security Council & Community Initiative: The Merlin Security Council, along with the Bug Bounty Program, strengthens the ecosystem’s security by involving top security firms and encouraging community participation and real-time monitoring.
Charting New Horizons for 2024
Reflecting on our journey, we’re impressed by Merlin Chain’s surging growth in just six months. While leading in the Bitcoin Layer 2 space, Merlin Chain will continue to strengthen security, ecosystem, and community.
On the technical front, Merlin Chain will continue to align with Bitcoin’s native protocol updates and the latest ZK research. On the ecosystem front, we’re steadily expanding Merlin Chain, driven by our mission to empower Bitcoin native assets through more efficient issuance, trading, and interactions on Layer 2. On the community front, Merlin Chain is committed to fostering an open and collaborative environment through refining our governance mechanisms, enhancing user guides and expanding our global reach.
While we’ve made significant strides, there’s still much to explore. Stay tuned for Merlin Chain’s evolvements in the latter half of 2024 — the best is yet to come.
About Merlin Chain
Merlin Chain is a native Bitcoin Layer2 that is committed to empowering Bitcoin’s native assets, protocols, and products on Layer1 through its Layer2 network, to Make Bitcoin Fun Again. Merlin Chain integrates ZK-Rollup network, decentralized oracle network, and on-chain BTC fraud proof modules.Merlin Chain has locked over 3.5 billion TVL within 30 days after its mainnet launch. The team behind Merlin, Bitmap Tech, is a premier OG team boasting an overall market cap exceeding $500 million. The BRC-420 “Blue Box” collection under Bitmap Tech has become one of the hottest assets on Ordinals.
