StackingDAO’s first Bitcoin staking pool has been fully subscribed. The 150 BTC allocation filled quickly, providing one of the earliest concrete signals of demand for native Bitcoin yield generation through the Stacks Layer 2 ecosystem’s new Genesis Bond program.

The wider Bitcoin Staking program under PoX-5 is targeting total capacity of roughly 3,000 BTC, which means StackingDAO’s pool represents about 5% of the overall capacity. Other participating pools, including Xverse and Fast Pool, still have capacity available for new participants.

The demand comes as Bitcoin yield products have proliferated across the crypto industry, but Stacks’ approach is distinct in that rewards are paid in BTC itself rather than in a protocol’s own token — a design enabled by Stacks’ Proof of Transfer consensus mechanism, which has paid BTC rewards to STX stackers since the network launched. The Genesis Bond extends that model so that BTC holders, not just STX holders, can participate directly.

How the Genesis Bond works

Under the mechanism, BTC holders lock their Bitcoin on Layer 1 — the base Bitcoin blockchain — while that BTC is paired with STX tokens on the Stacks network. The design requires no bridging and no transfer of custody to a third party — a contrast with wrapped-BTC approaches that rely on custodians or cross-chain bridges, which have historically been a source of security incidents in DeFi.

The program targets an initial annual percentage yield of approximately 3%.

StackingDAO is also introducing stBTC, a liquid staking token designed to let users auto-compound their sBTC rewards while retaining a transferable position that can be deployed across DeFi applications built on Stacks. Liquid staking tokens play a comparable role on other networks — such as stETH on Ethereum — by letting staked capital remain productive in DeFi while still earning base rewards. stBTC builds on sBTC, the dollar-pegged-to-BTC asset that Stacks launched to bring Bitcoin-representative assets into its smart contract layer.

Controlled growth by design

The current phase is deliberately constrained. Only about 10% of total bonding capacity has been reserved for ecosystem pools operated by experienced STX stackers, and this bootstrap period is overseen by the Stacks Endowment. The phased approach mirrors how other liquid staking protocols have scaled gradually at launch to limit risk while mechanics are tested in production.

The Genesis Bond is scheduled to launch on September 10, 2026, at which point the program’s first year will conclude. Once the bootstrap period ends, the system transitions to PoX-6, a permissionless auction mechanism in which anyone can compete for staking slots without the current gatekeeping by validated operators.

As staking activity scales, BTC flowing into the system is paired with STX tokens, and the shift to permissionless auctions is set to change how staking slots are allocated going forward. How quickly the remaining roughly 2,850 BTC of PoX-5 capacity fills — and how participation broadens beyond operator-run pools after the PoX-6 transition — will indicate whether native Bitcoin staking on Stacks moves beyond early adopters.