BTC Builders II: The Distribution Unlock for BTC Apps
In this weekly newsletter, we update you on the latest ways to do and earn more with your Bitcoin. Read more for the latest news from the Bitcoin universe and Arch community.
Roadmap
- This Week's Headlines
- One Big Thought
- Arch Updates
- Quick Hits: Watch, Read, Listen.
💰 BlackRock says institutional demand for BTC isn't priced in. Robbie Mitchnick, BlackRock's Global Head of Digital Assets, also told Yahoo Finance that a US recession could serve as a major catalyst for a Bitcoin rally.
🏛️ Trump: First sitting president to address a BTC conference. As US Senators announce plans to build up the National Bitcoin Reserve, the Trump administration has said it wants to buy "as much as we can get."
📈 Polymarket places 100% chance on Fed ending QT before May. Bitcoinist and others predict a surge in BTC price and other "risk-on" assets as a result.
What if you build it ... and they don't come?
A good product solves a lot of marketing challenges. But it doesn't guarantee success.
In the attention economy, eyeballs are at a premium — and everybody is competing for them.
But one of the inherent advantages of Bitcoin over other blockchains is that the mindshare is already here.
Bitcoin dominance is in the charts AND the distribution
This cycle has been marked by major Bitcoin breakthroughs, from US ETF approval and national Bitcoin reserves to the evolution of BTC DeFi as a major focus for investors.
The value prop is clear: Bitcoin has the largest market share and largest holder base of any cryptocurrency, by far.
Not having programmability has limited its productivity.
But what happens when you add truly native Bitcoin apps?
Adoption is rapid, and massive.
Bitcoin dApp adoption
We are directly experiencing this with the Arch apps that have already launched on Bitcoin's testnet4
- funkybit.fun: 120K wallets have etched 25K memecoins and completed 40 million transactions since launching in late November.
- Saturn DEX: 500K trades have been completed on the first app to ever provide Bitcoin-native AMM swaps and liquidity pools.
- Predictr Market: Nearly 1K users per day, and 5.2K per month, have completed 130K trades.
- ChaChing.Digital: Saw more than 2M transactions after launching its full borrow/lend features last month.
After launching with Arch's help, each of these projects also have seen their social media presences grow from as little as 100 followers on X to...
- funkybit.fun: 49K followers
- Saturn DEX: 80K followers
- Predictr Market: 47K followers
- ChaChing.Digital: 29K followers
Arch distribution support
These projects are just a few of those building on Bitcoin using Arch's architecture.
A major part of our support is technical, of course, with the ArchVM unlocking new ways for developers to build Bitcoin apps with Solana-like speeds.
However, Arch is also using our strong Bitcoin community roots to ensure reach for our community of builders.
This includes ...
- Leveraging the 360K wallets currently participating in our testnet
- Launching dozens of testnet missions with over 800K completed so far
- Amplifying messaging to our 500K+ followers across our social channels
- Connecting projects to our media, podcast, and investor networks
... and so much more.
Apply to start building on Arch today
Our big bet: Liquidity + Distribution
We believe that Bitcoin programmability doesn't work if it doesn't actually attract users and liquidity.
That means no fracturing the ecosystem by forcing users to use derivative assets instead of pristine Bitcoin.
Our unique technical architecture allows us to enable fast, performant programmability on the base layer of Bitcoin, so people can unlock more productivity with their native Bitcoin and UTXO-based assets like Runes and Ordinals.
It's that vision that has brought so many into our community — and it's why we are so focused on making it even easier for Bitcoin apps to get both liquidity and distribution.
Product Updates:
🛜 SDK Refactoring & Optimization: Completed comprehensive refactoring of the Arch SDK, improving deployment speed, error handling, and transaction management, resulting in a more robust developer experience.
✅ Validator Program Enhancement: Advanced the validator infrastructure with pubkey-based peer identification and snapshot capabilities, strengthening network security and improving validator set management.
₿ Bitcoin Integration Improvements: Implemented dynamic network switching capability for Bitcoin explorer integration, enhancing cross-chain compatibility and providing more flexible deployment options.
🧑💻 Performance & Stability Improvements: Enhanced error handling mechanisms and implemented caching for stake and vote accounts, optimizing system performance under varying network conditions.
💿 Testing Infrastructure Expansion: Developed comprehensive unit tests for the ArchRpcClient, strengthening quality assurance processes and ensuring more reliable code deployments.
Join 104K+ Bitcoin builders in the Arch Discord
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