Stacks says 735 BTC entered its Bitcoin staking system across the first two lockup cycles

Bitcoin layer-2 platform Stacks has released its third-quarter ecosystem report, detailing new staking, lending, and network upgrade figures across its ecosystem. According to the report, a total of 735 BTC entered the Bitcoin staking system during the first two lockup cycles. Since the PoX-5 hard fork, the amount of STX participating in staking has risen by more than 25%, increasing from 392 million STX to 493 million STX. The report said the first lockup cycle, Bond 1, brought in 230 BTC, with participants including 21shares, HashKey Cloud, UTXO Management, and Sypher Capital. Deposits in the second lockup cycle doubled to 505 BTC. Stacks also shared updated metrics for Zest Protocol, which now has more than $80 million in total value locked, over $122 million in deposits, more than $42 million in total borrowing, and 800 BTC deployed as collateral. Looking ahead, Stacks said it plans to launch self-custodial lending backed by staked Bitcoin in the fourth quarter, alongside an Earn vault and broader integration of stBTC with platforms including Zest, Bitflow, and Hermetica. The network also plans to roll out the Epoch 4.1 upgrade in early December, including improvements to the Clarity smart contract language.