Seventy Chains and Counting: Bitcoin Staking Expands With Mainnet Launch and New Integration

Bitcoin (BTC) staking protocol Babylon and blockchain interoperability platform Axelar announced on Thursday

Babylon Labs has launched its Babylon Genesis mainnet, a layer one blockchain powered by a native token called "baby." The launch was announced Thursday in a joint statement with blockchain interoperability protocol Axelar, which has integrated with Babylon.

The four-billion-dollar bitcoin staking protocol Babylon and blockchain interoperability platform Axelar announced on Thursday, an integration that will provide self-custodial bitcoin ( BTC) staking to more than seventy chains.

Babylon also unveiled on the same day, its Babylon Genesis blockchain, built using Cosmos’ CometBTF Interchain stack, and powered by a native token dubbed “baby.” What makes the Babylon protocol unique is its ability to enable holders of BTC to provide cryptographic security to proof-of-stake (PoS) networks in a self-custodial manner, without the need for intermediaries or bridges.

And now, with the Axelar integration also in place, the baby token, which can be staked to secure the Genesis chain, will be made available to AxelR's network of more than seventy blockchain platforms.

"With Axelar's integration, the Babylon Genesis ecosystem is now accessible across more than 70 blockchain ecosystems," said Clayton Menzel, head of business development at Babylon Labs, the firm behind the Babylon protocol.

The introduction of Genesis adds a layer-one platform secured by the Bitcoin blockchain, what Babylon Labs calls a "Bitcoin Secured Network" (BSN), featuring staking and timestamping. Genesis will also act as a liquidity hub and a so-called "control plane" that helps establish other projects seeking to become BSNs.

"Bitcoin's status as an institutionalized asset not only reinforces its value as a store of wealth but also enables it to play a critical role in the innovation happening onchain," said Axelar co-founder Georgios Vlachos.