Babylon Labs Launches Phase-1, Cap-2 Bitcoin Staking, Pulls in 24,000 BTC ($1.5B)

Oct 8, 2024, 02:39 PM

Babylon Labs has successfully launched Phase-1, Cap-2 of its Bitcoin staking protocol, attracting significant interest from the cryptocurrency community. The maximum staking amount per transaction has been increased to 500 BTC from 0.5 BTC. The protocol, which had previously capped staking at 1,000 BTC, has now pulled in approximately 24,000 BTC, equivalent to $1.5 billion. This round of staking did not result in any significant increase in network fees. Babylon Labs' new 'duration-based' staking round started earlier than planned due to faster-than-expected block mining, opening at block height 864790, around 8 PM UTC on October 8th. The staking protocol aims to enhance returns for Bitcoin holders by allowing them to stake their BTC for liquid staking tokens (LSTs). Pending stake amounts to 18.7K BTC (~$1.16B).