Cardano taps into $1.3 trillion BTC liquidity via BitcoinOS bridge

Cardano is poised to unlock more liquidity for the decentralized finance ecosystem through a major integration with BitcoinOS, Bitcoin’s smart contract layer.

According to the announcement made on October 24, Cardano (ADA) will leverage the $1.3 trillion Bitcoin (BTC) market by integrating BitcoinOS’ Grail Bridge, enabling zero-knowledge interoperability between Cardano and Bitcoin.

This development, announced during the Cardano Summit 2024, includes a partnership between BitcoinOS and blockchain firm EMURGO, the developer organization behind the Cardano blockchain network.

According to EMURGO, this collaboration strengthens Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem by bringing the vast potential of decentralized finance on Bitcoin to developers and the user community around ADA. This expansion follows Cardano’s Vasil hard fork. The latest Chang upgrade also marked a major milestone for the blockchain network.

Using the BitcoinOS bridge eliminates the need for intermediaries to access this market. ZK cryptography allows BTC users to transfer bitcoin to other chains without relying on custodians or intermediaries.

Ken Kodama, founder and CEO of EMURGO, shared the following comment:

“This collaboration with BitcoinOS has the potential to unlock new cross-chain capabilities and further strengthen Cardano by providing Cardano users, projects and developers with secure, trustless access to the Bitcoin ecosystem. “Fostering a more open and interconnected Web3 environment across different blockchains helps drive innovation and adoption of DeFi and other decentralized solutions.”

Other projects integrating BitcoinOS include DeFi protocols Sovryn and Merlin Chain.

In September this year, Merlin Chain announced that it would leverage BOS technology to improve cross-chain transactions for its users. The Layer-2 platform is one of several projects that aim to bring DeFi functionality to BTC holders at a time when interest in the flagship digital asset is growing.