Preface
2024 is the year when Bitcoin will burst into energy. At the beginning of the year, SEC approved the listing of Bitcoin ETF, and then Hong Kong also approved the listing of ETF. Good news keeps coming, and with the completion of halving last month, Bitcoin is undoubtedly moving towards a more ambitious goal. At the same time, on the Bitcoin application side, we have seen the ecological innovation brought by Ordinals. With the increase in its popularity and the resulting network congestion, the topic of Bitcoin expansion has once again been taken seriously. After several months of development, the current market shows a trend of Bitcoin Layer 2 and side chains blooming. BTCFi is considered to be a major track with huge room for future development.
We noticed the Core project in the early stages of BTCFi’s development because, as a public chain, it proposed innovative solutions to address Layer 1 network security, speed, and decentralization issues. The Satoshi Plus mechanism perfectly unleashes the security of the Bitcoin network. Its consensus is supported by the Bitcoin network and has efficient transaction processing speed and sufficient decentralization (for details about the Core chain, please read: https://docs.coredao.org/core-white-paper-v1.0.7 ).
We believe that the Core chain is the best soil for the development of BTCFi. As one of the earliest ecological partners to support the Core chain, Huobi HTX has strategically invested in the decentralized exchange built on its ecosystem: CoreX, and regards CoreX as the portal and liquidity gathering place for the future CoreDAO ecosystem, providing a new trading experience. This report details the product design ideas, functional features and competitiveness of CoreX. Huobi HTX believes that CoreX will become one of the most competitive Dex of CoreDAO, and as a booster of the ecosystem, it will become the center of CoreDAO user liquidity.
Why we are optimistic about BTCFi
Bitcoin DeFi (BTCFi for short) refers to the introduction of decentralized financial functions into the Bitcoin ecosystem. For a long time, Bitcoin, as the blockchain network with the strongest consensus and security, has not been able to carry decentralized applications like Ethereum or other public blockchains because it does not have the function of executing smart contracts. Most of the time, Bitcoin is used as a HODLing target. For Bitcoin holders, on-chain lending, decentralized trading, and contract trading have always been relatively blank.
Ordinals and Runes at the beginning of the year explored new application scenarios for the BTC ecosystem, which also showed the markets great interest in the general functions of the Bitcoin network, but we believe that Bitcoins potential in the Defi field is still to be explored. At present, the TVL in BTCFi is close to $1.2Billion, accounting for only 0.09% of the total market value of Bitcoin. In contrast, mainstream public chains with smart contract carrying capabilities, such as Ethereum, have an ecological TVL of 14% of their market value, Solana 6%, and Ton about 3%. Their ecological TVL has a large increase relative to their market value. Even if calculated at 1%, BTCFi still has 10 times of growth space.
Figure 1: Ratio of ecosystem TVL to ecosystem market value and comparison of ecosystem market value
We believe that BTCFi not only unlocks huge value in the Bitcoin market cap, but also provides new yield-generating opportunities for BTC holders. Through BTCFi, holders can go beyond just HODLing and make full use of their BTC through staking, lending, market making, etc. As BTCFi protocols continue to develop, they are expected to compete with or even surpass other existing public chain ecosystems, thereby promoting the formation of a more diversified and robust DeFi ecosystem.
The rise of CoreDAO
There are currently many solutions in the market on how to expand the functionality of Bitcoin. Among them, Core, as a Layer 1 public chain supported by the Bitcoin network and compatible with EVM, has proposed an innovative idea.
Core is secured by a consensus mechanism called Satoshi Plus, which guarantees the security of the Core chain through three paths: DPOW, DPOS, and non-custodial Bitcoin staking. First, DPOW combines the security of Bitcoin POW. Miners can delegate their computing power to the nodes in Core while providing computing power for the Bitcoin network, providing consensus security for the Core chain. Currently, 46% of Bitcoin nodes are delegated to the Core chain, providing 259 EH/s computing power support. On the other hand, the security of Core is also provided by the Core Token and Bitcoin delegated to the network. Currently, nearly 125 Million Cores and 3,000 Bitcoins have been delegated to the Core network. This hybrid consensus model of POW+DPOS not only ensures the security of the network, but also releases the networks ability to quickly execute transactions.
The design of non-custodial staking is another milestone innovation of Core. Since there is no need to establish trust with centralized custody, Bitcoin holders can safely enjoy the benefits of participating in the consensus of the Core chain without losing control of Bitcoin and receive staking rewards. This greatly reduces the threshold for Bitcoin holders to participate in staking and increases the security of Core. Bitcoin holders do not need to bridge Bitcoin across chains or encapsulate it into a packaged asset like WBTC. This completely non-custodial mechanism has the opportunity to attract a large number of Bitcoin holders to participate in the establishment of the Core network consensus.
Regarding the future development direction of CoreDAO, we believe that Defi will be the key track for the development of the Core ecosystem. Bitcoin users will be able to participate in lending, contract trading and other protocols while maintaining their Bitcoin holdings. Innovations include opening positions with Bitcoin as collateral, directly using Bitcoin for liquidity rewards or pledge liquidation, etc. At the same time, based on the pledge income, the gameplay of liquidity pledge will inevitably be derived.
What is CoreX
CoreX will serve as the flagship DEX in the CoreDAO ecosystem, providing users with an excellent trading environment through its simple and intelligent design and rich tool suite. CoreX uses the Uni V3 infrastructure to solve key challenges such as insufficient liquidity and transaction slippage, and integrates advanced artificial intelligence technology to create a vibrant social trading center.
How CoreX will create a new trading experience
CoreX brings a new trading experience to users through its optimized user experience, social functions and artificial intelligence technology. CoreX is committed to lowering the entry barrier for new users so that they can easily enter the field of Defi.
CoreX significantly enhances the traditional DEX experience by providing a user-friendly trading environment. The platform includes advanced real-time charting tools that not only allow traders to track the price fluctuations of their chosen tokens, but also integrates technical indicators and drawing tools for deeper analysis. These features are particularly useful and easy to use for traders who want to share their insights on social media. In addition to these comprehensive charting features, detailed information on each transaction is also displayed directly on the trading interface, including realized profits or losses, making important information easy to understand and access. Looking ahead, CoreX will launch customization options that will allow traders to customize their trading environment to suit their specific needs using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.
CoreX also takes social trading to a new level. It provides global chat rooms and currency-based chat rooms, allowing traders to exchange ideas with other cryptocurrency traders and share trading opportunities. For loyal users, CoreX also provides 1-on-1 encrypted messaging functions and the privilege of creating private chat rooms. In addition, CoreX has integrated social elements into its operations, including providing high returns through staking programs and hosting exclusive online and offline events to recognize and reward NFT holders. Recently, CoreX will hold a large-scale airdrop social event of up to 10 million tokens, which has attracted a lot of attention.
In addition, CoreX provides users with an intelligent trading assistant that uses machine learning algorithms to recommend trading opportunities to users based on personal user preferences, technical analysis, and social media sentiment. CoreX also provides a one-click copy trading function, allowing users to easily follow the strategies of outstanding traders. In addition, it also cooperates with algorithmic trading companies to provide users with accurate price predictions to help them stand out in the competitive trading environment.
HTX Ventures makes strategic investment in CoreX
Crypto traders are constantly looking for platforms that can bring sustained returns and high-quality trading experience. CoreX puts user experience first and provides a high-quality and intelligent experience through social and artificial intelligence technologies, which gives us every reason to look at it. We believe that the emergence of CoreX will push the development of CoreDAOs Defi to new heights. In the future, HTX Ventures will continue to pay attention to the CoreDAO ecosystem and promote the development of the ecosystem through our resources and advantages.
About HTX Ventures
HTX Ventures is the global investment arm of Huobi HTX, integrating investment, incubation and research to identify the best and most promising teams in the world. As a pioneer in the blockchain industry for ten years, HTX Ventures promotes the development of cutting-edge technologies and emerging business models in the industry, and provides full support for cooperative projects, including financing, resources and strategic consulting, to build a long-term blockchain ecosystem.
At present, HTX Ventures has supported more than 300 projects across multiple blockchain tracks, some of which have been listed on Huobi HTX. At the same time, HTX Ventures is one of the most active fund-of-funds (FOF) investors, working with Dragonfly, Bankless Ventures, Gitcoin, Figment, Animoca and other world-leading blockchain funds to jointly build a blockchain ecosystem.
