A Year of Building on Bitcoin: 2021 Stacks Ecosystem Highlights

January 26, 2022

2022 will go down as the year of 'Building on Bitcoin', but it's the work that's happened throughout 2021 that set the stage. Just one year ago, the Stacks mainnet launched and brought builders the tools to unleash over $1T in capital on the Bitcoin network.

It's wild to reflect and realize that so many important projects and programs we now consider staples didn't exist at this time last year. The Stacks Accelerator wasn't announced until April 2021 and now they're already closing in on the deadline for their second cohort!

There was no CityCoins, no Syvita Guild, no Stacks Residents, no agencies auditing Clarity, no institutional custody options, there was just one wallet, the first Stacks Chapter was just one month old in Pakistan, and projects we all know and love like Arkadiko, ALEX, Stackswap (and so many more! ❤️), were little more than ideas! And that's to say nothing of NFTs, new standards and tools, listings, integrations, and continued improvements driven by Stacks core developers. Wow.

As you return to what you're building, give yourself a moment to appreciate how far we've come and how fast it has happened. The day-to-day doesn't always feel monumental, but this community is doing something special. The fruits of our labor have only just begun to bloom!

To another year of unleashing Bitcoin,

Mitchell Cuevas and the Stacks Foundation Team

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We've lined up the best of Stacks 2021 sorted by theme below.

🎉 Stacks Anniversary

⛓️ Stacks Infrastructure

💸 Bitcoin DeFi

🦄 Bitcoin NFTs

🚀 Stacks Accelerator

🎟️ Events

You can also browse the archive for more detailed updates from previous bi-weekly editions published throughout the year.

🥳 Stacks Turns 1!

In just a single year, the Stacks community has made major progress in its mission to build a better internet on Bitcoin.

"The Stacks community has proven the incredible potential of smart contracts for Bitcoin, from DeFi to NFTs, CityCoins, to philanthropic efforts, portable identity to new infrastructure, all in a single year. The technology and resources are all here. What happens next is dictated by visionary builders."

- Brittany Laughlin

Take a trip back in time to one year ago.. 🎂

📈 By the Numbers

  • STX Address Growth: 330,448 -> 391,995

  • Active Addresses per day: 200+ -> 2,500+

  • Smart Contracts Built: 23 -> 2,568

  • Stacking TVL: 124m STX -> 461m STX

  • Total Stacking BTC Rewards: 1127 BTC = $54.5M

  • Entities: 7 -> 45+ companies

  • Direct Contributors: 400+ Founders/Developers/Marketeers

  • Community: 30K -> 100K+

  • Trading Pairs: 34+

⛓️ Stacks Infrastructure

All the success builders have had this year naturally starts with the underlying infrastructure. This year, we all made strides toward building a better Stacks and the network is stronger, faster, and more secure for it.

It all starts with the wallet! The Hiro web wallet was introduced to Chrome and Firefox in 2021 and allowed Stacks users to easily engage in the Bitcoin NFT and DeFi economy.

The Stacks Korea Chapter is pleased to share that popular South Korean wallet provider, D'CENT, has added support for Stacks (STX).

This integration means merchants who accommodate Paycoin will soon accept STX and bitcoin as methods of payment.

Since day one of our launch, less than two months ago, we have been popular with users from the Bitcoin community. Some even stating that Satoshibles were the first NFT they purchased! Using Satoshi…

The Orbit Chain team will integrate the Stacks blockchain and turn their attention to creating bridges between Stacks’ Bitcoin-connected blockchain and Orbit Chain’s growing ecosystem of public blockchains.

2021 brought the Stacks community several options for earning Bitcoin yield from the protocol in the form of Stacking pools. These pools have allowed thousands of Stackers to pool their STX together as a community and earn Bitcoin together.

Upgrades, New Tools, New Resources

To make sure the Stacks network can handle the growth, core developers and the community rallied to introduce Stacks 2.05, a Stacks release that provided the network an important increase in capacity.

The Stacks blockchain introduces microblocks, an update to provide users and applications with more timely feedback on the status and results of transactions.

An important update on the highly-anticipated integration of Chainlink on Stacks, plus other oracle updates from the ecosystem.

Stacks addresses the two major difficulties of building on top of Bitcoin: scalability and smart contracts. Messari's report delves into the past, present, and future state of the ecosystem.

Builders can now readily access smart contracts auditing services from top smart contract auditing firms in the industry, including NCC, Least Authority, and Coinfabrik.

Bitcoin smart contracts kicked off at the beginning of 2021 and near the end, we welcomed more than 250+ skilled smart contract developers via Clarity Universe, a 6-week immersive learning experience.

Grants & Stacks Chapters

This past year the Stacks Foundation turned up the heat and made some serious moves with the grants program. Grantees received over $400K USD and more than 300K STX. Chapter grants received over $270K USD and 186K STX.

This year the Stacks Foundation helped welcome a new cohort of residents. Expanding on the success of the Stacks Grants Program, the Stacks Residence Program is intended to encourage more open-ended research, network experimentation, and innovative business incubation.

Last year, the Stacks Foundation introduced Stacks Chapters, localized programs around the world that help onboard more builders and developers to the Stacks network and increase awareness of Stacks.

Stacks first started with academic roots. As part of this commitment, Hiro supported LUMS with a Stacks research grant of 5 million STX tokens that aims to fuel research on blockchain technology and distributed applications.

Stacks Korea is excited to announce that Stacks has been rated ‘Prime (AA-)’ by Xangle, a key crypto-asset disclosure platform in the country. This rating indicates Stacks is an excellent blockchain project with great reliability and strong capabilities that can help it accomplish its goal of unleashing Bitcoin's full potential.

💸 Bitcoin DeFi

DeFi and Bitcoin. Who would have thought that the two would link up in 2021? Bitcoin DeFi has been one of the greatest things to grace the Stacks ecosystem this year. We saw new Stacking highs, increased institutional interest, and new DeFi creations emerge out of the Stacks Accelerator.

ALEX is betting on the Stacks protocol to build its upcoming full-service DeFi project on the Bitcoin blockchain. The round was led by White Star Capital with participation from venture capital firms such as Cultur3, GBIC, and OK Blockchain Capital, among others.

By launching the decentralized USDA stablecoin, self-repaying negative interest rate loans, and other DeFi applications, Arkadiko is enhancing the STX token’s capital efficiency and serving as a foundational building block to unlock Bitcoin’s trillion-dollar value. Shortly after the launch, Arkadiko surpassed $60M in TVL and more than $7M USDA minted.

Institutional exposure to digital assets is broadening, with more investors looking to generate yield on their Bitcoin holdings via Stacks.

Coinbase Custody and Coinbase Prime Integrate STX and Support for Stacking

Riding on the wave of institutional interest, Coinbase Custody listed STX and Coinbase Prime added support for Stacking, adding new features for institutions to leverage their holdings.

Stacking surpassed $1B!

🦄 Bitcoin NFTs

It is hard to imagine that before 2021, there were no NFTs on Stacks. Today, there are hundreds of projects and a growing community of artists who have all created unique works all backed by Bitcoin.

The answer is yes! This piece captures some of the best NFT highlights from 2021 including the introduction to Boomboxes, the historic drop of Bitcoin Birds and Stacks Punks, and the migration of Satoshibles to Stacks.

Bitcoin Birds Helps Save Birds IRL

12 year old, Abraham Finlay started the Bitcoin Birds with his family and quickly sold out the 400 NFT collection within just a few days. The collection amassed more than $1M in NFT sales and the Finlay family has used a portion of the profits to rescue and rehabilitate local birds in Oregon.

Megapont, Satoshibles, and Stacks Foundation's Louise Ivan Payawal Talk About the Bitcoin NFT Community

Apes are in fashion these days and now with Megaponts, you can dress your apes up as robots. Pick and choose from a collection of robo parts for your Megapont thanks to its newest Robot factory.

Layer Launches SatoSHE in the Metaverse Gallery Show

CrashPunks Paid Homage to Stacks' Snow Crash Roots

Santa Delivers AR NFTs for Christmas

Profile pic NFTs aren't the only kinds of NFTs out there! The Open Art Source team worked with Shaderverse to deliver AR versions of their Arties collection just in time for the holidays.

Boombox introduces the first yielding NFTs on Stacks

The Boom team launched Boomboxes, a novel type of NFT that offers rewards via Stacking. Boomboxes are transferable and allow owners to redeem a percentage of Stacking rewards at any time. In just a quarter, they crossed over $1M Stacked all-time.

🏙 CityCoins

In 2021, we saw CityCoins take over Miami and NYC, and Stackers helped raise $55 million+ for Miami and NYC via CityCoin mining.

New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams welcomes its first CityCoin following the success of Miami Coin.

🚀 Stacks Accelerator

The Stacks Accelerator program was announced in April 2021 with the promise of helping entrepreneurs jumpstart their Bitcoin-powered businesses. By the end of the year, 25 companies graduated from the first cohort and increased their valuations by an average of 4x. → More stats

The first accelerator cohort kicked off with 25 companies, which was managed by Trevor Owens, the Stacks Accelerator Managing Partner. The first cohort created some of the first NFT, DeFi, and Web3 use cases for the growing Bitcoin economy on Stacks.

Risidio's debut marked the launch of the first Bitcoin NFT collection in existence, paving the way for many other NFTs to be launched on Stacks.

Eggschain founder, Wei Escala made history with the launch of Eggschain by securing the first patent for tracking genetic material on the blockchain for the purposes of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Accelerator graduate, GoSats launched a program that allows users to earn cashback rewards paid in BTC when shopping at their favorite brands in India.

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC / ACCESSWIRE / November 5, 2021 / StackSwap, the first complete DEX and Launchpad on the Bitcoin Network has announced the completion of its private round. According to the official press release, the blockchain platform was able to raise $1.

The Moonray team is helping bring the first Bitcoin metaverse experience to Stacks! Animoca Brands led the round, with participation from other top angels and funds including GBV Capital, Metavest Capital, LD Capital, and Lucid Blue Ventures.

The CityCoins Accelerator Track is an extension of Stacks Accelerator's mentorship-driven program awarding up to $50,000 investment to selected teams, who can additionally apply for up to $100,000+ in non-equity grants from the Stacks Foundation.

🎟 Event Highlights

Stacks and Miami really bonded this year. Members of the Stacks community gathered in Miami for DCentral Miami and Art Basel. We expect the Stacks community to have even more opportunities to connect IRL in 2022 💕.

It is not Art Basel without the artists of course 🖼

A note about these updates: The team and I greatly enjoy compiling these updates yet with each edition the attempts to be comprehensive become more futile. We've opted to simplify and highlight, but if we've left out something that's important to you, please do let us know.

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Disclaimer: The information shared in this email is strictly for informational purposes. You should not take its content, opinions, and/or descriptions provided as technical advice, legal advice, financial advice, or investment advice. See full disclaimer at stacks.org/terms.