Hat-tip to Messari analysts who recently showed the Core blockchain quietly built out its user base and native DeFi activity in Q1 2025, even as the broader crypto market saw values dip.
- Core blockchain demonstrated resilience in Q1 2025, expanding its user base and DeFi activity despite a market downturn. Its market cap decline was less severe than other Bitcoin sidechains.
- The network reached 46.1 million unique lifetime wallets, a 32% increase, indicating continued user adoption despite dips in daily engagement metrics. Core maintains a swift average block time of 3 seconds.
- Core’s ecosystem features innovations like Dual Staking and lstBTC, aiming to enhance yields for Bitcoin holders and expand institutional participation in Bitcoin-focused DeFi activities. TVL in CORE tokens increased by 40%.
The report paints a picture of a network finding its footing, pushing forward with strategic initiatives despite a challenging quarter for many digital assets. Core’s market capitalization, for instance, fell by half to $494.4 million, influenced by a small increase in circulating supply. Yet, this decline was less sharp than the 57% aggregate drop seen across other Bitcoin sidechains, suggesting a certain resilience in the face of headwinds.
Network fees, measured in USD, also saw a significant reduction, down 59% to $96,900. This largely tracked a 27% decrease in average daily transactions and a 53% drop in the CORE token’s price, which settled at $0.50 by quarter’s end. Average daily active addresses also fell by a quarter.
However, the story isn’t all about contraction. Core reached an impressive 46.1 million unique lifetime wallets by the close of Q1, a substantial 32% increase over the previous quarter. This suggests new users are still finding their way onto the network, even if daily engagement metrics saw a temporary dip. The Core blockchain, an independent Layer 1, also maintains a swift average block time of just 3 seconds, a stark contrast to Bitcoin’s ten minutes.
At the heart of Core’s operation is its Satoshi Plus consensus mechanism, a hybrid system that blends delegated Proof-of-Work with delegated Proof-of-Stake and self-custodial Bitcoin staking. This unique setup allows Bitcoin miners to delegate hash rate to Core validators, while CORE token holders stake their tokens for network participation.
Total value staked across both CORE and BTC saw a 17% decrease in USD terms, landing at $629.1 million. This was largely a ripple effect from the CORE token’s price drop. Interestingly, while the USD value of staked CORE decreased, the actual quantity of CORE tokens staked rose by 3% to 175.3 million. Bitcoin staked, however, saw both its USD value and quantity fall, from 6,500 to 5,500 BTC.
A key innovation highlighted in the report is Dual Staking, introduced in November 2024. This mechanism offers boosted CORE rewards to users who stake both Bitcoin and CORE tokens simultaneously. It’s a clever way to encourage Bitcoin holders to acquire CORE, enhancing both their yields and the network’s security.
By the end of Q1, 35% of Bitcoin stakers had opted into Dual Staking. Participants choose from tiered reward systems, with higher CORE-to-BTC ratios unlocking greater yields. A post-Q1 proposal further refined these tiers, pushing for even more CORE staking. While only 9% of Bitcoin dual-stakers chose the top “Satoshi” tier, they accounted for a remarkable 59% of all dual-staked CORE, showing a clear appetite for maximizing returns.
Looking ahead, Core and Maple Finance announced lstBTC in February 2025, an upcoming liquid staking token for staked Bitcoin on the Core network. This means users can lock their Bitcoin on the Bitcoin network and receive lstBTC on Core, allowing them to earn yield while keeping their Bitcoin liquid within Core’s EVM environment. Maple Finance plans to leverage some of this BTC to borrow CORE tokens for Dual Staking, creating a neat loop.
The Core Foundation also moved to extend lstBTC opportunities to institutional clients, partnering with BitGo, Copper, and Hex Trust. This opens a path for institutions to earn yield on their Bitcoin holdings and participate in various Bitcoin-focused DeFi activities, from lending to providing liquidity.
Core’s native DeFi ecosystem showed a mixed but promising picture. Total Value Locked (TVL) denominated in CORE tokens increased by a healthy 40% to 1.1 billion CORE. However, when measured in USD, TVL decreased by 34% to $531.3 million, again primarily due to the CORE token’s price decline.
The report notes Core’s DeFi diversity score was 3, with TVL concentrated in three key applications: Colend, Pell Network, and BitFLUX. Colend, a lending and borrowing platform, held $132.0 million in TVL, despite a 41% quarterly decrease. SolvBTC.CORE was its largest contributor.
Pell Network, a Bitcoin restaking layer, emerged as the second-largest application with $123.1 million TVL. Launched in August 2024, Pell offers higher yields for restaking coreBTC or SolvBTC. It also secured a $2.5 million raise, with Core Ventures participating, and airdropped its token in March.
BitFLUX, a stableswap DEX for Bitcoin-pegged assets, saw its TVL rise 12% to $90.7 million. It allows single-sided liquidity provision, with oBTC seeing a significant 166% increase in its TVL contribution. Sumer, a lending protocol forked from Compound V2, also launched on Core in January, ending Q1 with $90.4 million in TVL.
Beyond the numbers, Core continues to invest in its developer ecosystem. The Core Commit Program, launched in December 2024, is a three-month initiative providing mentorship and funding to selected teams. Ten teams were chosen for its first incubation cohort.
The network also updated its Core Ignition incentive program, introducing “Sparks,” a points system to measure and reward user activity. Season 3 of Core Ignition kicked off in March, resetting Sparks and adding new multipliers for various network applications, bridging, and trading. It’s a way to keep the community engaged and active.
The Core blockchain, even in a choppy market, appears to be laying down solid tracks for future growth, particularly with its focus on Bitcoin integration and liquid staking solutions. The expansion of its validator set, set to grow from 21 to 31 by Q2 2025, offers another metric to watch as the network matures.
