Binance Supports Stacks Network Upgrade: Bitcoin L2 Scaling Takes a Step Forward

by James · April 30, 2023

Binance supported Stack’s L2 upgrade for the Bitcoin network.
Bitcoin TVL saw positive growth, while Stacks’ TVL was on a downward trend, and the STX token remained bearish.

Although Bitcoin [BTC] was not initially designed to function as a smart contract platform like Ethereum [ETH]the emergence of tier-two solutions such as Stacks [STX] made it attainable.

Excitingly, crypto exchange Binance revealed its support for the upcoming Stacks network upgrade and hard fork. The upgrade is planned to occur at the blockchain height of 787,651.

Read stacks [STX] Price prediction 2023-24

Table of Contents

Bitcoin L2 network gets upgrade support

Binance made an announcement on April 29 regarding the support for Stacks’ network upgrade and hard fork. The good news for STX traders was that the upgrade would not affect token trading, nor would it create new tokens.

However, it is worth noting that the Bitcoin L2 upgrade was set to occur at a specific block height of 787,651. However, withdrawals were to be suspended at the block height of 787,645. At the time of writing, the blockchain height was 787,621, according to blockchain.com.

The Stacks network operates with a unique design philosophy that prioritizes true decentralization. This innovative solution enables the execution of smart contracts and dApps on the Bitcoin network without intermediaries, leading to a more streamlined and secure process.

The approach, known as “layer-2” scaling, also enables developers to build additional features and functionality on top of the existing Bitcoin infrastructure without requiring changes to the underlying protocol.

Status of Bitcoin and Stacks TVL

The emergence of solutions such as Stacks that enable smart contract functionality on the Bitcoin network is driving an increase in Total Value Locked (TVL) of the network.

At the time of writing, DefiLlama data showed that Bitcoin’s TVL reached $201.44 million, with an upward trend indicating positive growth.

Source: DefiLlama

However, a closer look at the TVL of Stacks revealed a less positive trend than Bitcoin. At the time of writing, the TVL of Stacks was $21.57 million, with a noticeable downward trend.

Source: DefiLlama

Realistic or not, here is STX’s market cap in BTC terms

STX on a daily time frame

On the daily time frame chart, the price movement of Stacks was weak. Despite this, STX was trading at around $0.72 at press time, showing a gain of almost 1%.

This gain reflected a two-day upward trend in the token’s price. However, it is worth noting that STX remained below the neutral line of the Relative Strength Index, indicating a continued bearish trend.