Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $111,878, driven by rising institutional demand. Between April 28 and May 2, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $1.81 billion in inflows. Even state treasuries are joining in—Texas plans to establish a Bitcoin reserve, following New Hampshire and Arizona.
Yet the price is only half the story. What matters more is what Bitcoin is doing. Thanks to sidechains like Core, BTC is no longer just “digital gold”; it’s the base collateral for a growing DeFi stack—smart-contract platforms, liquid-staking rails, and permissionless lending markets. As of 19 May 2025, that on-chain economy holds $6.19 billion in total value.
In this month’s issue we pull together the key data, funding moves, and institutional signals that explain where Bitcoin DeFi stands today—and where it’s headed next.
DeFi Growth on Bitcoin
Bitcoin’s DeFi ecosystem has seen significant growth, with TVL reaching $6.19 billion as of May 19, 2025 , reflecting significant growth driven by liquid staking and institutional adoption
While still in the early stages, this reflects the promising maturation of layer 2 solutions and sidechains enabling smart contracts and financial services on Bitcoin. Early innovations like self-custodial staking and decentralized lending are beginning to drive adoption.
Looking ahead, future trends include:
- Advances in Bitcoin-native DeFi platforms and smart contracts, leveraging L2 solutions to enable more complex financial services.
- Tokenization of real-world assets on Bitcoin, expanding its utility beyond traditional DeFi.
- Enhanced cross-chain interoperability, allowing Bitcoin to interact seamlessly with other blockchain ecosystems
Institutional Adoption Moves for Bitcoin
Institutional interest in Bitcoin continues to grow steadily. The asset is now gaining traction across banks, pension funds, corporates, and sovereign wealth managers. The past few weeks have brought several meaningful signals pointing to Bitcoin’s growing role in traditional portfolios.
Analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou expect Bitcoin to beat gold by year-end, thanks to ETF inflows, MiCA clarity, and big-treasury buyers like Strategy
A global bank telling clients “Bitcoin > gold” is a green light for asset allocators who still view gold as the default safe-haven. When Wall Street re-prices Bitcoin against the oldest store of value, the narrative shifts from speculative to strategic.
1. Bitcoin ETF Inflows Hit Record Highs
- Weekly Inflows: Bitcoin ETFs attracted $603.74M in the week of May 13–17, 2025, marking the fifth consecutive week of net inflows.
- BlackRock’s IBIT: Led with $1.03B weekly inflows (May 6–10), extending its inflow streak to 19 consecutive days.
- Fidelity’s FBTC: Added $188.1M on May 19, contributing to a cumulative $27.4B AUM across U.S. ETFs (Blockchain.News).
Institutional demand for regulated Bitcoin exposure is at an all-time high, with ETFs now holding 1.36M BTC ($140B+ AUM).
2. Sovereign Wealth Funds and Pension Funds Dive In
- South Korea’s $800 B National Pension Service can now buy Bitcoin directly
- Norway’s $1.73 T sovereign fund is studying BTC as an inflation hedge.
When state pensions and sovereign funds step in, Bitcoin moves from an “alternative” to a reserve-grade asset. Their purchases are long-term, rarely sold, and they pave the way for other public-sector pools—magnifying demand and legitimacy.
3. Corporate Treasuries Embrace Bitcoin + New Funding Boosts the Space
- David Bailey's Nakamoto Holdings and healthcare firm KindlyMD, Inc. announced a definitive merger agreement. Backed by a $710 million capital raise, the move aims to establish a substantial public Bitcoin treasury strategy.
- Strategy now holds 576,230 BTC (~US $42 B) after buying 7,390 BTC in May at an average of US $103,498 per coin. That stash equals roughly 59 % of the firm’s market cap, and the strategy has generated a 16.3 % YTD Bitcoin “yield” through disciplined dollar-cost averaging.
- Metaplanet (Japan) added 1,004 BTC for US $104.3 M, signaling that Asia-listed corporates are stepping onto the same playbook.
- Total public-company holding now sits at 722,412 BTC (≈ US $76 B), spread across 34 listed firms—about 3.44 % of Bitcoin’s fixed supply.
- Metaplanet, a Bitcoin Reserve Asset Company, secured $21.25 million in funding from EVO Fund. The newly raised capital is being used to acquire additional Bitcoin, reinforcing Metaplanet’s long-term strategy of building a robust BTC reserve.
- Bitcoin Project Roxom Global Raises $17.9M to Build BTC Treasury, Create Media Network
More public companies are parking Bitcoin on their balance sheets—and in growing size. Each new corporate buyer locks up a chunk of the fixed BTC supply, normalizes Bitcoin as a treasury asset, and pressures peers to consider doing the same
Core Ventures Portfolio Updates
- SolvBTC.m launched its yield-optimizing vault on Corepound.xyz, offering real yields, harvestable rewards, and zero temporary performance fees to users staking Bitcoin via Core’s infrastructure
- Eisen Labs partnered with BitFLUX to enhance Bitcoin swaps on Core, enabling seamless transactions, deeper liquidity, and reduced slippage for institutional traders.
- The b14g Network surpassed $210M TVL. b14g is a modular dual-staking for Bitcoin.
- BitFLUX launched a trading tournament and drove a 1,329% surge in volume and 1,265% fee growth in 12 days.
- Nawa Finance, Core’s Sharia-compliant yield platform, attracted $40M TVL in two weeks and launched its DualCore Vault for daily compounding $CORE staking rewards (Nawa Finance Launch).
- BIMA opened its mainnet alpha, allowing users to mint the USD-backed stablecoin USBD and stake it for yield generation, marking a significant milestone in compliant Bitcoin DeFi.
- Lemondrop is officially unlocked for all Phantom users on Solana. Every onchain trader can download the Lemondrop extension and start automatically stacking sats at the speed of Solana.
Final Word
Bitcoin’s DeFi stack is expanding faster, pulled forward by liquid staking, new credit rails, and relentless institutional demand. Public companies, pensions, and even states are now direct stakeholders. Less supply, more yield, deeper tooling: the flywheel is turning.
If you’re building on that flywheel—stablecoins, yield engines, RWA bridges —let’s talk at investments@coredao.org
