Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

The Stacks (STX) protocol has initiated the Nakamoto Upgrade, which introduces Bitcoin (BTC) finality to its network. Over the next 21 days, the ecosystem is set to experience a range of activities linked to this significant upgrade.

Stacks is one of the largest Bitcoin Layer-2 (L2) networks by market capitalization. Earlier this year, the STX community approved the Nakamoto upgrade, aiming to make the network faster and enhance block times.

Bitcoin L2 Stacks Initiates Nakamoto UpgradeThe Nakamoto Upgrade marks a new era of scalability for decentralized finance (DeFi) within the Bitcoin ecosystem and is one of the most significant changes to the Stacks network. Activated on Wednesday, this upgrade enhances transaction speeds and reduces settlement times.

Bitcoin’s standard settlement times previously ranged from 10 to 30 minutes or more. The Nakamoto Upgrade has slashed this to around five seconds—a 10X improvement that significantly boosts the Stacks network’s usability.

The upgrade received strong community support earlier this year and sets the stage for several key developments in the Stacks ecosystem. One of the major upcoming events is the introduction of sBTC, a decentralized asset backed 1:1 by Bitcoin.

Stacks is specifically designed to enable smart contracts and dApps to use Bitcoin as a secure base layer. By extending Bitcoin’s capabilities without altering it, Stacks unlocks billions in latent capital, allowing for a more dynamic and functional ecosystem.

Read more: A Beginner’s Guide to Layer-2 Scaling Solutions

The Nakamoto Upgrade comes as projects built atop the Stacks blockchain endured less-than-desirable speeds. These slow transaction times negatively impacted the user experience, making it challenging to support high-volume use cases and limiting developers from delivering complex DeFi products.

Despite the positive changes brought by the upgrade, which began on Wednesday, the total value locked (TVL) on the Stacks network has decreased by over $7 million, dropping from $98.10 million to $90.62 million. This decline in TVL suggests that the upgrade’s immediate impact on market confidence was mixed, even as the network undergoes notable improvements.

Stacks TVL. Source: DefiLlamaBeInCrypto data shows STX, the native token of the Stacks network, is trading for $1.59 at press time, down 8.5% since Thursday session openned.

Bitcoin L2s Could Initiate New WaveBitcoin L2 solutions are progressively gaining popularity, and have attracted significant investment. As BeInCrypto previously reported, VC funding towards Bitcoin L2s continues to grow, collectively raising an impressive $94.6 million in the second quarter of 2024.

This represents a substantial 174% increase quarter-over-quarter. Experts also revealed that at least 65 projects identified themselves as Bitcoin Layer-2.

“The crypto industry is catching on to the fact that much of what is done on alternative blockchains can be built on top of Bitcoin. Fortune 500 companies like MicroStrategy are tailoring their entire business towards Bitcoin’s Layer-2. Layer-2 faces no more regulations than other crypto platforms. The only challenges are technical, and the brightest minds are being pulled towards Bitcoin along with nation-states, etc,” Manuel Ferrari, Money On Chain Co-Founder, told BeInCrypto.

Read more: Beginner’s Tutorial to Start Using the Lightning Network

There is also speculation that L2s could spark a new bullish wave for Bitcoin, especially as the focus on scaling increases. This rising demand might lead to capital rotation, with overflow potentially moving into Layer-2 tokens like STX, Elastos (ELA), SatoshiVM (SVM), and BVM (BVM).

Majuro, Marshall Islands, January 30th, 2025, Chainwire

Funding accelerates the development of Elastos’ ELA token, Native Bitcoin DeFi protocol, and Web3 data economy – positioning Elastos as the utility layer for Bitcoin.

Elastos, a decentralized web infrastructure pioneer, today announced a $20 million strategic investment from Rollman Management to scale its Bitcoin-aligned ecosystem. Rollman Management, recognized for its high-profile investments in blockchain projects like Ripple, Ethereum, Solana, and Planck, now ranks Elastos among its top five holdings. The partnership will fuel the launch of Elastos’ Native Bitcoin DeFi protocol, BeL2, expand its merge-mined ELA token as a Bitcoin reserve asset, and accelerate Elacity—a Web3 data marketplace that enables creators to monetize content without intermediaries on top.

With Bitcoin’s market cap surpassing $2 trillion, Elastos solves critical gaps in Bitcoin’s ecosystem: 

ELA as Bitcoin’s Merge-Mined Reserve Asset: ELA tokens have been secured by Bitcoin’s hash power through merge-mining since 2018, aligning with Satoshi Nakamoto’s 2010 vision for decentralized networks. With a total of 28,220,000 by 2105 and around 50% of Bitcoin’s hashrate, ELA gains security and decentralization, provides additional revenue for BTC miners at no extra cost, and creates a crypto economically sound reserve asset for Elastos’ Bitcoin-native DeFi system. BeL2: Bitcoin’s DeFi Breakthrough: Launching in Q2 2024, BeL2 allows Bitcoin holders to collateralize BTC in personal wallets and access Ethereum smart contract services. These include minting stablecoins, performing swaps, and borrowing assets peer-to-peer, unlocking its value all whilst eliminating reliance on synthetic BTC (e.g., WBTC) and centralized custodians. BeL2 combines locking scripts, zero-knowledge proofs, oracles, and an arbiter network where ELA stakeholders can stake ELA and earn BTC fees as decentralized nodes to support the protocol. Elacity: Web3’s Creator Revolution: Already proven in early tests, where one creator earned $5,600 in 24 hours through tokenized podcast access, Elacity v2 will launch in April with channels and subscription models. It enables influencers to encrypt, tokenize, and sell content/royalties on Elastos for audio and video markets, with plans to extend its technology to support the tokenization of AI markets. “Leveraging Bitcoin’s trillion-dollar consensus to empower Web3 users with scalable utilities—that’s where Elastos comes in,” said Rong Chen, Elastos Founder. “Merge-mining ties ELA’s security to Bitcoin’s, and BeL2, Elastos’ decentralized finance protocol, unlocks BTC-backed DeFi without compromises, whilst Elacity creates a decentralized digital goods economy on top. Rollman’s investment supports our role as Bitcoin’s utility layer”. 

The $20M investment from Rollman will drive the advancement of Elastos technologies and also help Elastos reorient its branding, mature its technological stance, and go to market. This includes enhancing marketing efforts, which will further position Elastos as a leader in the growing Bitcoin-native DeFi space.

Elastos as a Pioneer in Bitcoin-secured Governance

Beyond its technological advancements, Elastos stands out for its Cyber Republic Consensus (CRC) governance model, formalized as a DAO LLC in the Marshall Islands, which signed this agreement with Rollman. This delegate-based system allows community members to stake Bitcoin merge-mined ELA, earn APY, and annually elect—or run as—one of 12 council members who vote on proposals, drive innovation, sign contracts, and validate Elastos’ Smart (EVM) and Identity (DID) sidechains. This ensures governance decisions reflect the community’s interests and demonstrates Elastos’ commitment to a truly decentralized and transparent ecosystem rooted in Bitcoin.

As Elastos enters its next phase of growth, participants can join the ecosystems CRC DAO by acquiring merge-mined ELA, which has a market cap of $48,542,586 and is secured by nearly 50% of Bitcoin’s hashrate (366.01 EH/s, equivalent to 244.008 Frontier Supercomputers). ELA offers 6+ years of proven security, a fixed cap of 28.22M tokens to be fully mined by 2105, and 3.29% emissions via its Essentials Wallet, ensuring scarcity and predictability for holders. Available on Centralized Exchanges (Coinbase, KuCoin, Gate.io, Huobi, Bitget, Crypto.com) and Decentralized Exchanges (Uniswap, Chainge Finance, Glide Finance), ELA empowers holders to shape Elastos’ future through CRC governance—driving innovation, reinforcing Bitcoin-level security, and building the next generation of decentralized applications.

Additional Information

ELA Merge Mining BeL2  Elacity Cyber Republic Consensus (CRC) Users can contact [email protected] for partnership inquiries or media requests. About Elastos

Elastos is a SmartWeb ecosystem builder focused on enabling decentralized application creation and cross-chain connectivity. Built on top of Bitcoin merge-mining, Elastos relies on the security of the world’s largest public blockchain and extends it with additional layers. The introduction of BeL2 and its Arbiter Network marks Elastos’ latest effort to advance a more open, clear, and trustless global financial system.

Website: Elastos.info 

X/Twitter: @ElastosInfo  

About Rollman Management Digital

Rollman Management Digital is a private investment and management consulting boutique that is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. The firm seeks to invest in talented teams and their blockchain protocols to further develop their technology and business while adding significant value to the future of the modern economy.

RMD is led by Victor R. Ch. Rollman, the founder of Rollman Capital, Rollman Mining, and Rollman Management. The Group offers a wide range of investment opportunities, financial services, and management consultancy to UHNWIs, entrepreneurs, developing governments, commodity trading firms, banks, family offices, and pension funds.

Website: https://rollmanmanagement.com/

Contact Ahmed IJ
Elastos
[email protected]