On July 9, the Bitcoin Thunderbolt Station concluded its reservation phase, amassing over $900 million in cumulative deposit reservations, surpassing the fundraising volume of Pump.fun by approximately 1.5 times. This platform plays a critical role in enhancing mainnet security while facilitating revenue distribution to institutional holders and qualified participants. The reservation phase attracted diverse stakeholders, including institutions, family offices, and investment firms, who contributed deposits using BTC, USD1, and Taproot inscription assets like BRC-20 and Runes, marking a pioneering application of Bitcoin native assets in mainnet infrastructure participation.
The upcoming second phase of the station, launching this week, will enable eligible institutions and users to initiate deposits with BTC or USD1, leveraging the $tsUSD quota to optimize mainnet revenue streams. Spearheaded by early Bitcoin core developers and the Nubit team, Bitcoin Thunderbolt remains the sole protocol on the Bitcoin mainnet offering native acceleration and stablecoin settlement. Since its launch, it has processed over 4 million on-chain transactions and engaged more than 267,000 unique users, underscoring its growing adoption.
Notably, Bitcoin Thunderbolt has integrated advanced features such as UTXO Bundling and OP_CAT instructions via a mainnet soft fork, significantly boosting on-chain processing efficiency by 1000 to 2000 times relative to the Bitcoin mainchain. This innovation supports native asset issuance and high-frequency transaction verification, as highlighted in HSBC’s April 15 report. Additionally, the stablecoin USD1, incorporated by Trump’s crypto project WLFI into the Lightning Network, represents one of the earliest native settlement assets, further validating the ecosystem’s maturation.