The brief

Analyst view

• Over 57,000 BTC worth ~$4-5 billion is now staked through Babylon, securing proof-of-stake networks without leaving Bitcoin.
• In January 2026, a16z Crypto purchased $15M BABY tokens to support Babylon Trustless Vaults development.
• Native Bitcoin-backed borrowing is integrated with Aave v4, allowing Bitcoin to serve as collateral for decentralized finance.

Technical approach

As reported

Self-custody staking

Stake without wrapping or bridging

Bitcoin stays locked on Bitcoin in user-controlled threshold vaults. Users keep their private keys; no wrapping or pegging.

Slashing via signatures

Cryptographic enforcement

Extractable one-time signatures automatically slash misbehaving stake directly on Bitcoin, enforcing proof-of-stake rules without intermediaries.

Genesis mainnet

A Bitcoin Superchained Network

Babylon Genesis is a Cosmos SDK layer-one blockchain secured by both native Bitcoin and BABY token staking through a dual consensus model.

Bitcoin collateral

Credit markets on Ethereum

Bitcoin Trustless Vaults allow native Bitcoin to collateralize borrowing on Ethereum, starting with Aave v4 integration.

Show all 4