Babylon, a Bitcoin staking platform designed to enhance the security of new protocols and decentralized applications, saw a surge in deposits, attracting approximately $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin on Tuesday after briefly reopening for additional contributions.
This substantial uptake reflects strong demand for a decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem built on the 15-year-old Bitcoin blockchain, which has traditionally been overshadowed by alternative networks like Ethereum and Solana.
David Tse, co-founder of Babylon and an engineering professor at Stanford University, remarked in an email to CoinDesk that the inflows exceeded their expectations. According to Babylon’s staking dashboard, around 18,601 BTC had already been staked by 20:03 UTC (4:03 p.m. ET), with an additional 5,419 BTC awaiting confirmation in the staking queue.
The deposit cap was lifted for about ten Bitcoin blocks over approximately one hour and 23 minutes, with a limit of 500 BTC per transaction. This “duration-based” structure marked a shift from Babylon’s initial launch in August, which had a fixed cap of 1,000 BTC that filled up in just over an hour.
Babylon aims to enable proof-of-stake chains to access capital from the substantial reserves held in Bitcoin. The platform is part of a broader movement to introduce utility to Bitcoin, a feature commonly seen on Ethereum but historically lacking on the original blockchain.
The project gained significant attention earlier this year, completing a $70 million funding round in May, following an $18 million round in December.
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