Update (2-4-26 at 6:49 UTC): This article has been updated to show the correct Stacks block time as 5 seconds.
Fireblocks, an institutional-grade crypto infrastructure company, announced it will integrate Stacks, a DeFi layer for Bitcoin, to give institutional clients access to lending and yield-bearing products.
The integration bypasses Bitcoin’s roughly 10-minute block time by leveraging the Stacks blockchain, which averages about 5-second blocks, a Stacks spokesperson told Cointelegraph. All Stacks transactions settle to the Bitcoin ledger for finality. By removing the 10-minute BTC block time barrier, the integration addresses a common institutional objection to BTC-based DeFi applications, the spokesperson said.
The integration is scheduled to go live in “early” 2026, according to Fireblocks; no exact rollout date was given.
The move reflects ongoing institutional interest in Bitcoin DeFi even amid a market downturn that has seen Bitcoin (BTC) fall roughly 40% from its October 2025 all-time high above $125,000.
There was about $5.5 billion in total value locked (TVL) in Bitcoin-based DeFi applications at the time of writing, according to DefiLlama. Bitcoin DeFi TVL rose sharply from about $704 million in October 2024 to over $9 billion by October 2025, before retreating to current levels.
For context, total value locked across the crypto ecosystem was about $103 billion at the time of publication.
Proponents say Bitcoin-native DeFi could eventually supplant traditional finance with decentralized systems that broaden access. Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at BitWise, has forecast Bitcoin DeFi could grow into a $200 billion market.
However, some warn that growth of Bitcoin second layers and DeFi applications could threaten the base layer’s decentralization. Markus Bopp, CEO of crypto infrastructure company Trac Systems, has raised this concern.
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