The recent emergence of the new Bitcoin asset protocol Tacit has reignited market interest in the Bitcoin ecosystem. And lately, a new 10x "golden dog" has appeared in the Bitcoin ecosystem, making everyone exclaim that the familiar "ordi" flavor is back. Why has the Bitcoin ecosystem been so hot recently? Has something genuinely new emerged?
Bound Exchange
The predecessor of this platform was radfi, which previously gained attention due to the "Node Monkey" strategy coin $NODESTRAT. $NODESTRAT is similar to $PUNKSTR on Ethereum, both utilizing trading fees to repurchase NFTs, then listing them for sale with different profit targets. The profits from selling these NFTs are then partially used to buy back and burn the token, creating a flywheel effect.
Previously, radfi and Bound operated separately. radfi handled Bitcoin/Rune AMM and Launchpad, while Bound focused on stablecoins. Now, the two have merged into Bound. The merged platform offers comprehensive features, including trading, lending, Launchpad, and an NFT marketplace.
Bound recently attracted market attention because its token $BOUND has surged approximately 46 times since May 21st.
Returning to the project itself, the main points praised by the community about Bound are as follows:
Greatly simplified trading process. Traditional Rune AMMs typically require depositing Bitcoin first, then waiting for several block confirmations. This confirmation time can be as short as half an hour, but longer if block production is slow, potentially taking over an hour. On Bound, besides depositing Bitcoin, users can also deposit SOL, ETH, HYPE, or BNB. These are swapped to BTC via corresponding BTC trading pairs, allowing users to directly trade Rune tokens on the platform. The overall time required is significantly reduced, naturally enhancing the user experience.
Instant trade confirmation. Avoiding long waits for Bitcoin block confirmations has been a goal for platforms dealing with Runes in the Bitcoin ecosystem. This isn't inherently difficult; once funds are deposited and confirmed on the platform, trades can be processed internally/off-chain first, using the Bitcoin mainnet as a confirmation layer. However, the key issue is solving the security problem. Previous platforms like odin.fun also gained popularity but eventually faded after repeated asset theft incidents. Bound's solution is to add a 2-of-2 multisig to user asset deposit addresses. One signature is held by the user (stored as a passkey on the user's device), and the other is held by the platform's backend.
This means even if the Bound platform is hacked, assets cannot be stolen because the hacker can only satisfy one signature layer. There's another question: what if the platform runs away? Therefore, Bound added a timelock. If Bound's signature expires after 3 months, users can directly withdraw their assets using their own passkey.
Price protection mechanism. Bound's official Twitter account retweeted an explanation by @SkyAAmen regarding this mechanism: "For Rune tokens launched via Launchpad, the post-launch token price is calculated based on the average minting price. 75% of the raised liquidity is placed below this price to act as a floor against potential selling pressure, while the remaining 25% is paired above this price."
Regarding token issuance, Bound also introduced a virtual mempool, which can be understood as a virtual chain tracking Bitcoin mainnet block production. Users minting new Rune tokens on the Launchpad don't pay fees to miners; the money is instead used for the aforementioned price protection and liquidity provision. Additionally, to reward holders, those who mint 1 million tokens or more and do not sell can share 50% of the trading fees.
The above three points are the main advantages. Furthermore, Leonidas, a well-known figure in the Bitcoin ecosystem, has also expressed support for Bound:
Tacit
BlockBeats previously published a detailed article introducing Tacit:
New Protocol Tacit: The ZEC of the Bitcoin Ecosystem?
Currently, the price of Tacit's leading token $TAC remains stable, with a corresponding market cap of approximately $5.5 million. The developer @z0r0zzz continues to maintain a high update frequency. On May 23rd, they implemented double-blind tokens on Bitcoin, further strengthening the protocol's privacy features. Additionally, work is ongoing on a permissionless ETH-BTC bridge implemented via SP1 zero-knowledge proofs.
Alkanes
We have also previously introduced Alkanes: Another 10x Runner in Bitcoin Ecosystem, What is the New Asset Protocol Alkanes? This protocol gained attention because $DIESEL has risen approximately 17 times since late April and is still climbing:
Alkanes isn't a new protocol. In fact, Oyl Wallet, which initially led it, is no longer active. The subfrost team now responsible for protocol updates and maintenance consists of the original technical team from Oyl Wallet that handled Alkanes. Despite Oyl's disbandment, the subfrost team has been consistently updating, implementing significant performance optimizations such as embedding contracts into the indexer.
However, the substantial rise of $DIESEL is likely due to its very small actual circulating supply. The previous mining mechanism for $DIESEL awarded the entire block's $DIESEL reward to the single minting transaction that paid the highest miner fee within that block. This essentially allowed "scientists" (automated traders/bots) to dominate, making it difficult for ordinary users to participate. In August last year, the mining mechanism was updated. Now, all successful minting transactions in a block share the $DIESEL reward proportionally based on their bid amount. This means those who believe in $DIESEL's value can mine more. Mining has become a small "beast" (auction) occurring every block, with a fixed total reward (currently about 3.125 $DIESEL per block, synchronized with Bitcoin's halving cycle), but the bidding situation within each block changes.
Simultaneously, 50% of all funds bid for minting $DIESEL within a block are converted into $DIESEL and directed to the project's treasury for protocol development. Therefore, although the $DIESEL production per block is about 3.125 tokens, the amount users actually receive from minting is less, as a portion goes directly to the project team.
The total supply of $DIESEL is 1,562,000 tokens. Currently, approximately 640,000 tokens have been mined and are potentially circulating, but the actual amount available for trading might be less than 10% of the total supply. Combined with the recent massive price surge, I'd call it the "meme coin" of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
