For the first time on any L2, BTC holders can stake without surrendering custody to secure Starknet and earn rewards; the ledger already murmurs of ~65k delegators, ~150 validators and 575M+ STRK staked. Strategic partners including WBTC, Lombard, Solv, Threshold Network, Layerzero and Re7 Capital will ease BTC’s DeFi access and institutional deployment. To jump‑start the ecosystem, the Starknet Foundation is launching a 100 million STRK “BTCFi Season” incentive program to subsidize BTC‑denominated borrowing, yield strategies and tokenized basis trades. Starknet emphasized zk‑STARK security (post‑quantum, no trusted setup), audited transparency, decentralized sequencers, and work with BitVM teams and Raspberry Pi‑verified Bitcoin headers as steps toward becoming Bitcoin’s execution layer.