• BOB aims to bridge Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystems as a hybrid Layer-2 protocol, leveraging BitVM to expand Bitcoin’s role in DeFi and unlock cross-chain liquidity.
  • The three-phase roadmap includes Ethereum L2 integration, a Bitcoin finality protocol and a full transition to a Bitcoin rollup, enabling advanced DeFi features like BTC staking.
  • Bitcoin DeFi could be a much bigger market in the near future as new technologies are being developed to support the ecosystem.

BOB (Build on Bitcoin) has laid out a phased development roadmap to enhance its capabilities as a Hybrid Layer 2 protocol. Each phase is designed to improve the integration of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), aiming to push for Bitcoin DeFi, which is a trending topic lately in the crypto community.

That’s because a lot of innovations and developments have taken place in the field, and BOB is one of the projects seeking to push a potentially massive sector.

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Ok, So, What is BOB? 

BOB is a new blockchain protocol that provides Ethereum’s DeFi capabilities to Bitcoin BTC, or that’s the goal, at least. It aims to achieve this by building a bridge between the two blockchains while inheriting Bitcoin’s security.

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It’s basically a hybrid L2 for Bitcoin. The platform plans to support trust-minimised Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals using a mechanism known as BitVM (short for Bitcoin Virtual Machine), introduced by Robin Linus in late 2023. The engine is Turing-complete, allowing for the processing of complex computations off-chain to reduce the load on Bitcoin’s blockchain.

The selling point of BOB is its potential to open up mass adoption of DeFi for Bitcoin by connecting both ecosystems. This connection aims to draw liquidity from each, positioning BOB as a solution for cross-chain financial applications.

Source: gobo.xyz

BOB CEO Expects Retail and Institutional Users to Arrive Soon

While the crypto world often rallies with memecoins and AI agents, BOB’s CEO, Alexei Zamyatín, told Crypto News Australia that it wouldn’t take long until retail and institutional users get into Bitcoin DeFi.

DeFi’s TVL is at its highest point in 18 months, and this is only the beginning. Whilst memes and AI agents have dominated headlines, there’s a quiet but powerful resurgence in DeFi and on-chain yield. New interest is flooding in, both from blockchain newcomers and those returning after a break.

Alexei Zamyatín, BOB CEO

The protocol aspires to place Bitcoin at the forefront of the DeFi ecosystem and unlock new use cases and, of course, expand access to liquidity across blockchains.

With Bitcoin’s DeFi expansion, powered by BitVM, we’re poised for an even bigger shift. Currently, DeFi TVL accounts for 30 percent of ETH’s market cap. But BTC, which has increased more than 110 percent year-to-date, only accounts for 0.1 %.

Alexei Zamyatín, BOB CEO

The roadmap for BOB Hydra consists of three phases. The first one, already live, is the launch of BOB as an Ethereum layer 2, built on the OP Stack.  It has grown to 100+ projects, 170,000 users, and $100M+ in assets, focusing on enhancing Bitcoin’s usability in DeFi with features like 1-click BTC staking.

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Phase 2 is adding a Bitcoin finality protocol to the Ethereum L2 framework, and Phase 3 is a full transition to a Bitcoin rollup via the BitVM I explained earlier.