Bitcoin DeFi sees surge in mining participation despite drop in TVL
Rootstock, a smart contract platform for decentralized finance (DeFi) on Bitcoin, experienced a significant increase in network security and mining engagement in Q1 2025. Merged mining participation rose to 81%, up from 56.4% in Q4 2024, due to major mining pools Foundry and SpiderPool joining. This surge boosted Rootstock's hash power to over 740 exahashes per second, surpassing Bitcoin's total hashrate from October 2024. Transaction fees decreased by 60%, enhancing user experience. However, Rootstock's total value locked (TVL) in DeFi dropped by 7.2% in BTC and 20% in USD, totaling $179.9 million, reflecting broader market trends. Active addresses fell by 26.5%, and new addresses decreased by 54.7%, despite a slight increase in daily transactions. The platform activated the Lovell 7.0.0 upgrade for better EVM compatibility and launched new developer initiatives. USDt remained the leading stablecoin but saw its market share decline significantly.
