Solana got beaten to the bottom and crawled back to the top 5 blockchains like a warrior, got selected by the crypto president to launch his namesake memecoin, and now it needs something powerful to flip into the next chapter.
The Bitcoin ↔ Solana Ecosystem Expands
As the multichain layer for the permissionless Bitcoin liquidity, Zeus Network is fully diving into Solana as the first target — not just as some say “fast and cheap,” but for its solid history, tight-knit community, and spirit to embrace innovation.
God Helps Solana
Compared to Ethereum, Solana has surpassed the original blockchain in multiple areas, including the user-friendly experience, powerful enough to eliminate the need for L2s, creative builder communities, and more.
What Solana is seeking… what keeps it from fulfilling people’s expectations to finally become the “Ethereum Killer”, is liquidity.
That is Zeus Network’s calling: Fuel Solana with ancient, pure, and untapped liquid gold, the native Bitcoin to take Solana to the next level.
Network Stats — Epoch 3
This Epoch marks the expansion of network security and integrity through the onboarding of two reputable entities as Guardians of Zeus Network: Mechanism Capital and Animoca Ventures, both leading Web3 pioneers.
Our SVM alliance, Sonic, has distributed 40K of $SONIC tokens to Epoch 1 and Epoch 2 delegators. Together, we make everything possible for Solana.
- Period: Feb. 2nd, 2025 ~ Mar. 6th, 2025
Top 3 Milestones
- Onboarded Mechanism Capital as Guardian
- Onboarded Animoca Ventures as Guardian
- Distributed 40k $SONIC to delegators
Value Captured
- Highest BTC Price: $101,777
- Locked BTC Increased: 7.4866 BTC
- Network Volume (USD): 41,516,393 (+22,222,296 / ↑115.18%)
- Total Network Volume (BTC): 396.71729 (+218.343 / ↑25.26%)
- Total Interactions: 1,037 (+587 / ↑130.44%)
- Unique Addresses: 66 (+16 / ↑32%)
Guardian Status
- Live: 3 (Zeus Foundation, Mechanism Capital & Animoca Ventures)
- Onboarding: 4 (Axia8 Ventures, Sec3, UTXO Management & Karatage)
Delegation & Capacity
- Total ZEUS Delegation Increased: 2.5M
- Total BTC Capacity Increased: 125
- Total Delegation Openings: 5 (Including 2 Guardian Initiations)
- Total Delegators: 520 (+212 / ↑69.93%)
- Total ZEUS Delegated: 4,500,000 (+2,500,000 / ↑125%)
- Total BTC Capacity: 225 (+125 BTC / ↑125%)
Bitcoin Finance 2025
In January 2024, a significant milestone was reached when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved spot Bitcoin ETFs, marking a historic moment for institutional Bitcoin adoption.
According to The Future of Bitcoin #4: DeFi by Binance Research, “Only 0.79% of BTC holdings are being put to work and locked in DeFi”, highlighting the vast untapped potential of the Bitcoin economy.
This figure is particularly striking when compared to Bitcoin ETFs, which have achieved 6.22% adoption in just one year. The fact that DeFi adoption remains at 0.79% after 16 years of Bitcoin and blockchain development raises an important question:
Why aren’t more on-chain assets being utilized within the blockchain ecosystem?
The Obstacles of Bitcoin DeFi
For 16 years, Bitcoin has been striving to fulfill its purpose as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, but it was never designed for programmability and scalability. To put it in simpler terms: Bitcoin is not available for use.
Its limitations have turned it into the safest decentralized digital asset (so far) and formed a unique, cautious Bitcoin adopter base.
Unlike traditional DeFi users on Ethereum, Solana, and other modern blockchains, real Bitcoin adopters prioritize security, self-custody, and long-term value preservation over active capital deployment.
Alternative Solutions
If we can’t use Bitcoin directly, why not wrap it and move it to a better environment for active use?
Here’s how the wrapped version of BTC works on modern blockchains for DeFi utilization:
Bitcoin L2s emerged as a modern and “completely make sense” solution that has been highly developed in the past 2 years. However, the results show that due to fragmentation and the difficulty of building a community from scratch, L2s have performed below expectations.
Native BTC staking protocols like Babylon have shown strong adoption among Bitcoin holders, enabling them to earn yields from different ecosystems by staking their BTC on-chain.
Wrapped BTC now represents approximately 1% of the total Bitcoin supply deployed in DeFi for on-chain yield earning; it marks significant progress in Bitcoin’s development.
However, due to its low efficiency and limited programmability, centralized entities can only offer wrapped versions of Bitcoin, which limits the options to build decentralized applications around the wrapped BTC.
Ecosystem: Bitcoin-Solana
Zeus Network is building a Bitcoin dApp ecosystem on Solana, combining Bitcoin’s liquidity with Solana’s vibrant community. New protocols like APOLLO will enable on-chain Bitcoin applications on Solana.
The Bitcoin Landscape on Solana
Solana has emerged as the leader in wrapped BTC adoption, with two major players entering the space in 2024.
The latest statistics (April 1st, 2025):
Despite the transparency and privacy concerns, these wrapped Bitcoin solutions on Solana face a key limitation: Developers cannot build directly on WBTC or cbBTC, due to its centralization which restricts BTCFi development on Solana.
(Native) Bitcoin DeFi is Now Available
As the Bitcoin on-chain exchange of APOLLO (the first dApp built on Zeus Network, which was successfully launched on March 27th), deep behind the whole “Permissionless Bitcoin on Solana” lies the first glimpse of BTCFi, further unlocking Bitcoin’s capital efficiency on Solana.
A new chapter in BTCFi on Solana has begun, with zBTC offering Bitcoin holders a highly efficient asset that maintains security and privacy.
Most importantly, anyone can Build applications around zBTC.
Conclusion
Since late 2023, Zeus Network has invested over 10,000 hours to build a secure and robust infrastructure, developing a permissionless framework that enables liquidity to flow freely between Bitcoin and Solana.
Pick One: On-chain Custodian or Off-chain Custodian?
Bitcoin holders lack confidence in deploying their BTC in the on-chain environment. Instead, they must compromise Bitcoin’s decentralization and surrender ownership to third parties when it comes to making Bitcoin usable.
The 16 years of development of Bitcoin didn’t give the holders many options, they choose between “giving up my Bitcoin custodianship to an off-chain and centralized entity” or “giving up my Bitcoin custodianship to an on-chain and centralized entity”.
The Third Option
Now, with APOLLO’s zBTC, we provide a third option: “How about you keep your Bitcoin on-chain in self-custody and use it freely on Solana?”
