OP_NET launches Bitcoin DeFi push without bridges or wrapped BTC

OP_NET has launched a “SlowFi” DeFi stack that runs smart contracts directly in standard Bitcoin transactions with BTC as the only gas asset, avoiding bridges and wrapped BTC.

OP_NET said it is launching a “SlowFi” decentralized finance (DeFi) stack on Bitcoin that uses standard Bitcoin transactions and native BTC fees rather than bridges, wrapped assets or a separate gas token.

According to a Thursday release shared with Cointelegraph, the project is part of a broader push to bring trading and yield-style activity directly onto Bitcoin’s base layer instead of routing it through sidechains, bridges or adjacent networks. OP_NET is betting some users will accept slower and more expensive transactions in exchange for staying fully on Bitcoin.

According to OP_NET co-founder Frederic Fosco, who goes by Danny Plainview, applications run through standard Bitcoin (BTC) transactions using Taproot-based spends, while the platform’s NativeSwap model is designed to support token swaps without wrapped BTC or a separate gas asset. Plainview told Cointelegraph that every transaction on OP_NET is “just a Bitcoin transaction with BTC as the only gas asset.”

The launch lands in the middle of a growing fight inside Bitcoin over whether DeFi-style and data-heavy uses of block space strengthen the network’s fee market or amount to spam that crowds out monetary transactions.

Plainview said a swap would typically cost about $1 to $2 under normal fee conditions and roughly $10 to $20 when blocks are congested, because users pay only standard Bitcoin network fees rather than a separate gas token.

OP_NET describes the model as “SlowFi,” arguing that Bitcoin’s roughly 10-minute block times and congestion-driven exit friction can make liquidity stickier and produce longer-lived DeFi cycles than faster chains.

Related: Fireblocks to integrate Stacks for institutional-grade Bitcoin DeFi

Plainview framed layer-1 DeFi as a way to support miner revenue as block subsidies decline, arguing that “miners are bleeding” due to Bitcoin’s halving schedule. “The only thing that keeps miners solvent is a fee market,” he said, insisting that OP_NET does not modify Bitcoin consensus.

Related: Animoca, RootstockLabs partner to bring Bitcoin DeFi to Japanese institutions

That view has drawn criticism from Bitcoin users who argue that pushing DeFi-style activity onto layer 1 dilutes Bitcoin’s monetary focus or clogs block space with nonessential transactions. In recent posts on X, some critics described OP_NET as an attempt to bring Ethereum-style crypto infrastructure onto Bitcoin.

Some maximalists argued that any attempt to expand Bitcoin’s use cases beyond money made its proponents “sh*tcoiners” larping as Bitcoiners.

Plainview pushed back, saying that any fee-paying Taproot transaction should be treated as a legitimate use of block space.

He warned that drawing moral lines around valid transactions handed de facto control of Bitcoin to whoever defines those categories. He said:

OP_NET enters a field already populated by earlier attempts to bring programmability to Bitcoin, including through RSK and Stacks. 

RSK operates as a separate Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible sidechain with its own RBTC gas token and a federated BTC peg, meaning users move value off mainnet and trust a federation to manage the bridge. 

Stacks, by contrast, is a Bitcoin-anchored layer-2 with its own STX token and sBTC mechanism, executing smart contracts on a distinct chain that settles periodically to Bitcoin rather than inside L1 transactions.

By keeping execution and fees directly on Bitcoin and avoiding wrapped BTC or new gas assets, Plainview is betting that some users will accept slower, more expensive transactions in exchange for staying entirely on Bitcoin’s base layer.

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Source: CoinTelegraph