Stacks delivered its two main Q3 goals, shipping Bitcoin Staking and building a liquid staking ecosystem around it, as Bonding Period 2 doubled the Genesis Bond with 505 BTC bonded. NEW YORK
Stacks delivered its two main Q3 goals, shipping Bitcoin Staking and building a liquid staking ecosystem around it, as Bonding Period 2 doubled the Genesis Bond with 505 BTC bonded.
NEW YORK | October 15, 2026. Stacks today published its Q3 2026 Ecosystem Report, covering the quarter Bitcoin Staking went live on mainnet. Across its first two bonding periods, Bitcoin Staking has brought 735 BTC into the Stacks ecosystem, and STX staked has climbed from 392M STX after the Bitcoin staking PoX-5 hard fork unlocked all staked STX to 493M STX today, an increase of more than 25%. Additionally, weekly DEX volume on Stacks reached a 12-month high of $16.7M in the week of September 28, led by BitFlow.
In its Q2 report, Stacks set two main goals for Q3: ship Bitcoin Staking and build a liquid staking ecosystem around it. Both are live. The PoX-5 hard fork activated on July 30, and the Genesis Bond opened on September 10 with 230 BTC bonded and all available capacity filled, with 21shares, HashKey Cloud, UTXO Management, and Sypher Capital among the first institutions to bond BTC on Stacks.
Bonding Period 2 opened on October 8 and brought 505 BTC into Bitcoin Staking, double the Genesis Bond, with 6.7M STX bonded alongside it. Liquid staking led the period, with 483 BTC entering through Stacking DAO's stBTC, the liquid staking token that carries Bitcoin Staking yield into lending, vaults, and trading across Stacks.
Bitcoin Staking lets participants earn rewards paid in BTC. Genesis Bond positions run for six months and target a 3% annualized BTC yield, paid weekly. Self-custodial participants keep their bonded BTC timelocked on Bitcoin L1 and pair it with STX locked at 5% of its value.
"In Q2 we committed to shipping Bitcoin Staking and building a liquid staking ecosystem around it, and both are live," said Muneeb Ali, Founder of Stacks, who takes over as CEO of Stacks Labs today. "In two bonding periods, 735 BTC has entered Bitcoin Staking, and much of it is already at work in lending and vaults on Stacks. Q4 is about scaling Bitcoin Staking with every new bonding period and bringing additional features to Bitcoin and Stacks"
The report's highlights include:
Bitcoin Staking went live on mainnet. PoX-5 activated on July 30, and the Genesis Bond opened on September 10 with 230 BTC bonded and all capacity filled.
Bonding Period 2 doubled the Genesis Bond. 505 BTC was bonded with 6.7M STX alongside it, led by 483 BTC through Stacking DAO's liquid staking.
STX staked climbed more than 25% after the PoX-5 unlock, from 392M STX restaked after the hard fork to 493M STX with Bonding Period 2.
Liquid staking arrived on Stacks. Stacking DAO launched stBTC on September 3 and filled its first 150 BTC of capacity in under 24 hours. stBTC supply has since reached 636 BTC, and Stacking DAO TVL has passed $85M.
Staked Bitcoin went to work. Zest Protocol passed $122M in deposits and $42M in total borrows, and weekly DEX volume on Stacks reached a 12-month high of $16.7M in the week of September 28, led by BitFlow.
Institutional infrastructure expanded. Fordefi and Anchorage Digital joined Fireblocks in supporting Bitcoin Staking, BitGo added institutional custody for sBTC, Ankr, The Tie, and HashKey Cloud broadened the sBTC signer set, and STX and sBTC went live for trading on Bullish.
The Stacks Endowment launched Stack Sats, distributing 1 BTC per month through BitFlow and Zest from September 10 to December 10.
The report also outlines Q4 priorities: scaling Bitcoin Staking through monthly bonding periods, expanding the BTC deployed across Bitcoin-native finance on Stacks, and activating Epoch 4.1, the next network upgrade, in early December.
Read the full Q3 2026 Stacks Ecosystem Report.
About Stacks
Stacks is growing Bitcoin by turning idle Bitcoin into productive capital. The network enables self-custodial Bitcoin yield and a growing ecosystem of Bitcoin-native financial applications that settle on Bitcoin.
Learn more at stacks.co.
Media Contact: Shannon Voight, PR & Events, Stacks Labs, [email protected]
