Encrypting Legacy Business: Hybrid Innovation Becomes Web3’s Main Narrative
At its core, using Web3 infrastructure to host the time-tested business logic of Web2 models is the same playbook behind some Web3 projects that “back-door list” and the recent wave of U.S. public companies stockpiling crypto assets. Take a look at the projects now favored by primary-market investors and you’ll notice a common thread: they all lean toward hybrid innovation, plugging proven Web2 business logic into Web3 rails. • Lightyear ports the logic of traditional equity ETFs on-chain. • ...
PrismaX: The $11M Super Project Surging in Popularity with Unlimited Potential!
Project IntroductionPrismaX is an innovative blockchain project dedicated to delivering efficient and transparent decentralized services. Leveraging smart contracts and cross-chain interoperability, it supports diverse digital asset management and financial applications while optimizing transaction efficiency and scalability. Built with a modular architecture, PrismaX prioritizes security and user experience. Its native token, PMX, powers community governance and ecosystem incentives, driving...
A Comprehensive Analysis of Dubai’s RWA Regulation: From Licensing to Sandbox Implementation
Amidst the global trend of regulating virtual assets, Dubai has emerged as a crucial hub for Real-World Assets (RWA) due to its forward-looking strategies. This article delves deeply into Dubai’s RWA regulatory framework, covering the regulatory frameworks of VARA and DFSA, types of licenses and business scopes, the approval process for ARVA issuance, requirements for reserve assets, disclosure details, and DFSA’s newly launched tokenization regulatory sandbox program. It provides a comprehen...
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Encrypting Legacy Business: Hybrid Innovation Becomes Web3’s Main Narrative
At its core, using Web3 infrastructure to host the time-tested business logic of Web2 models is the same playbook behind some Web3 projects that “back-door list” and the recent wave of U.S. public companies stockpiling crypto assets. Take a look at the projects now favored by primary-market investors and you’ll notice a common thread: they all lean toward hybrid innovation, plugging proven Web2 business logic into Web3 rails. • Lightyear ports the logic of traditional equity ETFs on-chain. • ...
PrismaX: The $11M Super Project Surging in Popularity with Unlimited Potential!
Project IntroductionPrismaX is an innovative blockchain project dedicated to delivering efficient and transparent decentralized services. Leveraging smart contracts and cross-chain interoperability, it supports diverse digital asset management and financial applications while optimizing transaction efficiency and scalability. Built with a modular architecture, PrismaX prioritizes security and user experience. Its native token, PMX, powers community governance and ecosystem incentives, driving...
A Comprehensive Analysis of Dubai’s RWA Regulation: From Licensing to Sandbox Implementation
Amidst the global trend of regulating virtual assets, Dubai has emerged as a crucial hub for Real-World Assets (RWA) due to its forward-looking strategies. This article delves deeply into Dubai’s RWA regulatory framework, covering the regulatory frameworks of VARA and DFSA, types of licenses and business scopes, the approval process for ARVA issuance, requirements for reserve assets, disclosure details, and DFSA’s newly launched tokenization regulatory sandbox program. It provides a comprehen...
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In Conversation with Merlin Founder Jeff: BTCFi Is Stuck on Yield—RWA Could Be Bitcoin’s Next Catalyst
Support Influencers
In Conversation with Merlin Founder Jeff: BTCFi Is Stuck on Yield—RWA Could Be Bitcoin’s Next Catalyst
While Bitcoin surged past $120 k this week, the wider Bitcoin-eco narrative has slipped out of the spotlight. Yet builders are still shipping. Merlin, one of the earliest BTCFi pioneers, invited Odaily for a wide-ranging chat with founder Jeff.
Odaily: Early 2024 was rough—people accused Merlin of faking TVL, copying Ethereum L2s, and using unsafe custody. Why dive in so early?
Jeff: Timing. Ordinals and Runes were exploding; holders wanted yield on native BTC, not just price exposure. We built what the market demanded. Today Babylon, Solv and others use the same pragmatic custody-plus-bridge stack we battle-tested back then.
Odaily: How do you see the current BTCFi landscape?
Jeff: Product designs have converged. The real chokepoint is yield: rates have compressed and whale-sized BTC can’t be absorbed sustainably. Everyone is now hunting for new yield sources and greater capacity.
Odaily: Airdrops are over—how do you keep users?
Jeff: Airdrops are caffeine, not nutrition. Long-term holders care about stable, safe yield. Our new 50-BTC vault sold out in 27 minutes because we source yield from:
Multi-chain liquidity provision (e.g., Sui LPs + subsidies)
Cross-token arbitrage using BTC as collateral
AVS validation rewards from new protocols
User-directed DeFi farming wrapped in a single-click, risk-managed vault
Odaily: Will MicroStrategy-style firms ever stake their BTC?
Jeff: They’ll participate, but off-chain: custodians, wrapped BTC, regulated yield products. Merlin’s focus is retail: Hold → Earn → Invest.
With chain-abstraction + AI, a user can keep only BTC and still ape into a Solana meme coin, flip it, and end up with more BTC—all in <1 second, all settled back to the BTC wallet.
Odaily: You just shipped v0.3 of Merlin Wizard. What does it solve?
Jeff: Two pain points:
Decision fatigue—aggregated on-chain/off-chain data for ETH, Solana, Base, BSC
Execution friction—natural-language orders (“Buy TRUMP at $0.12, sell at $0.20”) executed across chains; user keeps final signing authority
Cost: A few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month—covered by chain revenue.
v1.0 launches early August: chat with Wizard and spend native BTC for any trade.
Odaily: What’s next after BTCFi and AI?
Jeff: Real-World Assets. First week of August we’ll tokenize collectibles, anime IPs, and physical goods directly on Bitcoin. Users stay long BTC and punt on high-beta RWAs—speculation without leaving the BTC denominator.
Odaily: Attention on Bitcoin-eco has cooled. Any regrets?
Jeff: Objectively, yes. 80 % of last year’s Bitcoin-eco projects are gone. But surviving the down-cycle is the job. Solana rebuilt after FTX; we’ll do the same.
Team stayed intact (30+ people, mostly Web2 DNA) and we’re comfortable grinding in silence.
Odaily: MERL on Binance Alpha—did you pay a “tribute”?
Jeff: If “tribute” means user airdrops, yes; if it means under-the-table fees, no. We absorbed the $3–4 M sell-pressure fine. Listings on Binance Alpha and Kraken were six-month compliance marathons—no shortcuts.
Odaily: Meme, AI, RWA—are you just chasing every hype?
Jeff: A chain must incubate what devs want. We can’t block them. But no project wins by hype alone. Ordinals took off only after teams kept building through the graveyard period. Same with AI now.
Odaily: Biggest stress moment?
Jeff: Token launch—20 % airdrop, price expectations, 24/7 anxiety.
What keeps us going? Belief that Bitcoin-eco is a multi-decade game and we’ve already built the moats no new entrant can replicate today.
Jeff’s closing thought:
“This cycle is hell-mode. Short-term plays are tempting, but we need more builders. Web3 isn’t built by tourists—it’s built by residents.”
While Bitcoin surged past $120 k this week, the wider Bitcoin-eco narrative has slipped out of the spotlight. Yet builders are still shipping. Merlin, one of the earliest BTCFi pioneers, invited Odaily for a wide-ranging chat with founder Jeff.
Odaily: Early 2024 was rough—people accused Merlin of faking TVL, copying Ethereum L2s, and using unsafe custody. Why dive in so early?
Jeff: Timing. Ordinals and Runes were exploding; holders wanted yield on native BTC, not just price exposure. We built what the market demanded. Today Babylon, Solv and others use the same pragmatic custody-plus-bridge stack we battle-tested back then.
Odaily: How do you see the current BTCFi landscape?
Jeff: Product designs have converged. The real chokepoint is yield: rates have compressed and whale-sized BTC can’t be absorbed sustainably. Everyone is now hunting for new yield sources and greater capacity.
Odaily: Airdrops are over—how do you keep users?
Jeff: Airdrops are caffeine, not nutrition. Long-term holders care about stable, safe yield. Our new 50-BTC vault sold out in 27 minutes because we source yield from:
Multi-chain liquidity provision (e.g., Sui LPs + subsidies)
Cross-token arbitrage using BTC as collateral
AVS validation rewards from new protocols
User-directed DeFi farming wrapped in a single-click, risk-managed vault
Odaily: Will MicroStrategy-style firms ever stake their BTC?
Jeff: They’ll participate, but off-chain: custodians, wrapped BTC, regulated yield products. Merlin’s focus is retail: Hold → Earn → Invest.
With chain-abstraction + AI, a user can keep only BTC and still ape into a Solana meme coin, flip it, and end up with more BTC—all in <1 second, all settled back to the BTC wallet.
Odaily: You just shipped v0.3 of Merlin Wizard. What does it solve?
Jeff: Two pain points:
Decision fatigue—aggregated on-chain/off-chain data for ETH, Solana, Base, BSC
Execution friction—natural-language orders (“Buy TRUMP at $0.12, sell at $0.20”) executed across chains; user keeps final signing authority
Cost: A few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month—covered by chain revenue.
v1.0 launches early August: chat with Wizard and spend native BTC for any trade.
Odaily: What’s next after BTCFi and AI?
Jeff: Real-World Assets. First week of August we’ll tokenize collectibles, anime IPs, and physical goods directly on Bitcoin. Users stay long BTC and punt on high-beta RWAs—speculation without leaving the BTC denominator.
Odaily: Attention on Bitcoin-eco has cooled. Any regrets?
Jeff: Objectively, yes. 80 % of last year’s Bitcoin-eco projects are gone. But surviving the down-cycle is the job. Solana rebuilt after FTX; we’ll do the same.
Team stayed intact (30+ people, mostly Web2 DNA) and we’re comfortable grinding in silence.
Odaily: MERL on Binance Alpha—did you pay a “tribute”?
Jeff: If “tribute” means user airdrops, yes; if it means under-the-table fees, no. We absorbed the $3–4 M sell-pressure fine. Listings on Binance Alpha and Kraken were six-month compliance marathons—no shortcuts.
Odaily: Meme, AI, RWA—are you just chasing every hype?
Jeff: A chain must incubate what devs want. We can’t block them. But no project wins by hype alone. Ordinals took off only after teams kept building through the graveyard period. Same with AI now.
Odaily: Biggest stress moment?
Jeff: Token launch—20 % airdrop, price expectations, 24/7 anxiety.
What keeps us going? Belief that Bitcoin-eco is a multi-decade game and we’ve already built the moats no new entrant can replicate today.
Jeff’s closing thought:
“This cycle is hell-mode. Short-term plays are tempting, but we need more builders. Web3 isn’t built by tourists—it’s built by residents.”
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