Trustless Market distributes Uniswap contracts on Bitcoin as BRC20 based SHIB, PEPE gains popularity

A group of developers have deployed Uniswap’s smart contracts on the Bitcoin network to capitalize on the rise of BRC-20 tokens and develop the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

Called the Trustless Market, the protocol has amassed daily volumes of $500,000, attracted over 2,000 users, and allows liquidity providers to earn a 2% cut on all swaps executed on the network.

Although most of these tokens are meme coins, rather than tokens that can be used in a sophisticated DeFi application built on Bitcoin, it still counts as a start.

“We want to make Bitcoin as generalized as possible – usable for far more than just a currency,” said @punk3700, one of the developers at Trustless Market, in a Twitter message. “We started first with art, then AI, and DeFi is the natural next area to add.”

“It is still very early. Feels like Uniswap in 2018. But it’s fun,” said @punk3700.

DeFi relies on automated smart contracts to provide financial services, such as lending and borrowing, to users. Almost $47 billion worth of tokens are locked on such protocols, DefiLlama data shows.

Bitcoin’s use in DeFi applications has so far been limited to tokenized representations of bitcoin on other chains, such as Ethereum or Solana. However, the recent introduction of “Bitcoin Recent for Comment” token standards allows developers to issue tokens – and DeFi applications – natively on Bitcoin – which has spurred a collection of digital artwork and meme tokens built on Bitcoin in recent weeks.

Data from OrdSpace, which tracks BRC-20 data, shows that over 11,000 Bitcoin-issued tokens are available on the open market as of Monday with a cumulative market capitalization of $500 million, down from a figure of $1.5 billion earlier this year the week.

So far, tokens from Ordinal’s marketplace Ordi (ORDI) are the most valued BRC-20 tokens with a market cap of $400 million and 8,300 unique ordi token holders. Ordi is said to be the first BRC-20 token distributed on Bitcoin, which could also help its value proposition among holders.

Pepe tokens (PEPE) on Bitcoin – distinct from those issued on Ethereum – are the third largest BRC-20 issuance, albeit with a relatively smaller market cap of $17 million. There is also Bitcoin’s own shiba inu (SHIB) iteration with a capitalization of $3.7 million – just a slight cut compared to the original SHIB on Ethereum, which has a capitalization of $5.5 billion.

As such, Trustless Market is one of the few protocols in a growing cohort seeking to grow the Bitcoin ecosystem – a move that has seen transaction fees rise.

Bitcoin users paid over $17.42 million in fees in the past 24 hours, marking the second-highest day ever in gas fees, analytics tool DefiLlama tweeted Thursday.

But the likes of @punk3700 say the fee issue is a stepping stone to drive long-term adoption.

“I think it’s a good problem to have actually!” @punk3700 said. “Always believe that the use cases/tools come first. The infrastructure upgrade will then follow.”