Today, the Wormhole Foundation and Bitcoin L2 Labs announced a new collaboration bringing together Wormhole, a leading interoperability platform, and Stacks, the leading Bitcoin Layer 2, to unlock native Bitcoin liquidity for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications across multiple blockchain networks using Wormhole and its Native Token Transfers (NTT) standard.

sBTC is a decentralized, Bitcoin-backed asset issued on the Stacks layer, enabling users to move BTC trustlessly between the Bitcoin network and other blockchains while maintaining a 1:1 peg to Bitcoin. Despite being live for less than six months and having launched in just three limited-capacity tranches, sBTC has already surpassed both Lightning and Liquid to become the largest native Bitcoin Layer 2 with over half a billion dollars in total value locked (TVL).

By leveraging Wormhole's NTT standard and widely adopted multichain infrastructure, sBTC will unlock native Bitcoin liquidity and enable seamless deployment across leading networks—such as Solana and Sui—without the need for wrapped assets or fragmented liquidity. This integration will also bring together other key Stacks ecosystem organizations including Asymmetric Research, whose infrastructure and audits help secure sBTC and the broader Stacks network, and Stacks DeFi applications such as Granite and Zest, Bitcoin liquidity protocols. Asymmetric Research is also a core contributor to the Wormhole interoperability platform.

"Bitcoin's strength lies in its simplicity and security—but for too long, its capital has been stuck on the sidelines," said Muneeb Ali, Founder of Stacks. "By leveraging Wormhole's technology, we're enabling sBTC to serve as foundational infrastructure for the next generation of Bitcoin DeFi applications across multiple blockchain networks, unlocking access to native BTC liquidity for builders everywhere."

Stacks' sBTC will deliver significant strategic advantages through its native multichain architecture, where Stacks will maintain direct ownership and management of token contracts across all supported blockchains. This approach will ensure consistent governance and security while preventing the liquidity fragmentation that typically plagues multichain tokens. Stacks will leverage Wormhole's decentralized validator network—the same technology trusted by major institutions like BlackRock, Apollo Global, and VanEck—to provide institutional-grade security for all transfers.