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Stacks’ Muneeb Ali: Let the Bitcoin L2s Bloom

Published

5 месяцев ago

13 января, 2025

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On Jan. 2, Muneeb Ali, the co-founder and CEO of leading Bitcoin L2 Stacks, updated his X bio from simply “founder @Stacks” to “war time founder @Stacks.” The change signaled Ali’s recognition that 2025 is a year when Stacks must pivot to a focus on going to market and expanding its user base after 2024’s major technical upgrades. Those upgrades included the long-awaited Nakamoto update that dramatically increased the project’s speed and achieved 100% finality on Bitcoin for all its transactions.

According to Ali, a new orientation for Stacks is even more appropriate given that crypto is now firmly in the throes of a bull market, powered by the election of Donald Trump and what is expected to be a more favorable environment for crypto development.

“The bio change was a signal to the community that, ‘hey, we understand that these times are different, and you need to move much faster and be much more aggressive,’” Ali said in an interview with CoinDesk. “Not that there won’t be product upgrades in 2025, but I would say the product stops being the focus of the work.”

Here, Ali discusses what he would have done differently with the Nakamoto upgrade if he could, his frank thoughts on Lightning’s slow progress at enabling payments via bitcoin, where he sees bitcoin’s price going in 2025 and his ultimate goal of getting one billion people on-chain via Stacks. Ali will be a speaker at Consensus Hong Kong in February.

This series is brought to you by Consensus Hong Kong. Come and experience the most influential event in Web3 and Digital Assets, Feb.18-20. Register today and save 15% with the code CoinDesk15.

This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

So where does the Nakamoto upgrade stand now?

I still think Bitcoin needs a really, really good L2. One reason is that Bitcoin’s UX is not going to change at the L1 level; you’re never going to have fast, cheap transactions at the L1. And that’s why a lot of people were interested in Lightning. It’s been around for a while, it has had some adoption, but not a ton. Let’s be real about it.

So I think there’s still a need for extremely fast, great UX Bitcoin transactions. I would say even Solana has achieved that way better than Lightning or anything else. So one of the things that we want to do is have a Solana-like Bitcoin L2, where you can move any amount of capital super fast, and it’s a great UX experience. And I think that’s one goal that we are hitting with Nakamoto.

Is there anything you would have done differently with respect to Nakamoto’s rollout if you could?

So the Nakamoto launch happened in a lot of phases. First, the core consensus capital moved in April. Then we launched the fast blocks, but the more complex transactions couldn’t benefit from it. And then we did another release where the more complex transactions could also benefit. But looking back, it’s like there was a trickled release. So people had high expectations at every step, and then they’re like ‘oh, it’s not here yet, it’s not here yet.’ So by the time it fully launched, I think it took away some of the excitement, frankly.

Do you think we’ll continue to see interest swing back to building and programming on Bitcoin as opposed to Ethereum and other chains in 2025?

I think so. Bitcoin is like one of those things that is like a class of its own in a way; it just never goes away. Even if you think about what’s happening in the public markets and how many public companies are now building Bitcoin treasuries, Bitcoin is so far ahead of anything else in terms of adoption. So there was more excitement about Bitcoin L2s maybe a year ago, and it seemed to have cooled down a little bit. But I think Bitcoin is so fundamental that people will just come back to it.

How do you think Donald Trump will affect the course of Bitcoin?

A lot. Look at the people he’s picking, like David Sachs as crypto and AI czar. He’s a big LP at Multicoin Capital and fully updated on crypto and Solana, so I think it makes a huge difference. And the same is true for some of the other people that Trump is picking as advisors. In the U.S. for the last four years, the government and the regulatory bodies were literally just fighting us. Now I think they’re actually going to actively support and encourage things, which is a huge 180. It helps a lot.

Also, if any of the Bitcoin Reserve [plans] happen, that’s going to be a huge, huge signal throughout the world. Even if they happen [just] at the state level, like in Texas or Wyoming, it will send a huge signal around the world.

What’s your guess on where bitcoin’s price might be at the end of year?

I’m still a believer in the four year cycle, with the current cycle I see as ending in Q4 2025. And even though there are some reasons to believe that maybe the cycles won’t be that intense, I’m personally still a believer. I’d be surprised if we don’t see $150,000 by the end of the year, and I do think we can see $200,000. That would be my high range.

When are we going to see fast and efficient payments via bitcoin?

We’re trying to make it happen ourselves. And I think Lightning deserves a lot of credit — there are a lot of die-hard fans that use it. But the technology was complex and not very easy to integrate, and the Bitcoin community really just got behind one project. And I think the way to do this is you let dozens of experiments happen and see what attracts attention. One of the things I like about Bitcoin L2s with so many different projects getting started is that finally we are seeing multiple experiments happen. If Lightning was too hard to integrate, let other projects have a go at it.

If you go to a Bitcoin conference or hear from some of the top people like [MicroStrategy Founder] Michael Saylor, there’s this attitude that Lightning is the solution and the only solution. They wouldn’t talk about any other L2s, and I think some of that has to do with the fact that some of these L2s have their own tokens. The bitcoin community doesn’t like that. But I think they’re slowly now at least opening up.

What are you excited about discussing at Consensus Hong Kong?

How do we take Bitcoin to a billion people? That’s something that excites me and drives some of the technology decisions that we make. If that’s your goal, you almost immediately start looking for L2s, because on L1, a billion people can’t even own UTXOs [Unspent Transaction Outputs]. I don’t know that a lot of Bitcoiners even realize that a billion people cannot own a UTXO on-chain on Bitcoin alone.

That’s something that probably doesn’t get talked about that much in our industry. People have made peace with onboarding people to Bitcoin through Coinbase and Binance and maybe through ETFs. But that’s not what Bitcoin is about. Bitcoin is about decentralization and self-custody and people being in control directly. We can’t forget that mission.

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VivoPower Raises $121M to Launch XRP Treasury Strategy With Saudi Royal Backing

Published

1 час ago

28 мая, 2025

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VivoPower International (VVPR), a Nasdaq-listed energy company, said on Wednesday it has secured $121 million in a private share placement to fund its pivot to digital asset treasury focusing on XRP XRP, the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

The raise was led by Saudi Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Abdulaziz Al Saud, investing $100 million, a spokesperson to the company told CoinDesk. The company sold 20 million ordinary shares priced at $6.05 per share.

Adam Traidman, a former Ripple executive who led the SBI Ripple Asia, is joining the company as chairman of the board of advisors, according to the press release. Ripple is an enterprise-focused blockchain service provider closely related to the XRP Ledger.

VivoPower shares surged as much as 26% on the news before giving back some of the gains. Recently, they were up over 11%, trading around $6.75.

The move is the latest example of public firms raising money to purchase and add digital assets to their treasuries, a playbook popularized by Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) that has become the largest corporate holder of bitcoin BTC. While BTC has been the most sought-after asset among these firms, recent newcomers like DeFi Development and SharpLink Gaming directed their focus to Solana’s SOL SOL and Ethereum’s ether ETH, respectively.

VivoPower, founded in 2014, aims to be the first publicly traded company with a crypto treasury strategy centered around XRP. It also plans to spin off its legacy business.

«After reviewing a number of listed vehicles seeking to embrace a digital asset treasury model, we selected VivoPower given its strategic focus on XRP and its objective to contribute to building out of the XRPL ecosystem,» Prince Abdulaziz said in a statement. «We have been investors in the digital asset sector for a decade and have been long-term holders of XRP.»

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NYC Mayor Eric Adams Calls For the End of NYDFS’ BitLicense, Proposes ‘BitBond’

Published

1 час ago

28 мая, 2025

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LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, called for the end of the BitLicense in a speech at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

During his speech, Adams encouraged crypto businesses to return to the U.S. and set up shop in New York, echoing comments he made last week at the city’s first-ever crypto summit held at Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official home in Manhattan.

«New York is the Empire State. We don’t break empires. We build empires. We’re saying to you, come back home,» Adams said. «[I’m] the Bitcoin mayor, and I want you back in the City of New York, where you won’t be attacked and criminalized. Let’s get rid of the [Bit]License and allow us to have the free flow of bitcoin in our city.»

Adams has previously criticized the BitLicense, the notoriously difficult-to-obtain license issued by New York’s top financial regulator, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). However, when asked about the impact of the BitLicense and NYDFS’s reputation as a tough regulator during a press conference earlier this month, Adams hedged, saying it was «good to know the city is going to have safe regulations in place for those who are investing and there’s not going to be any abuses, but at the same time, we can over regulate.»

Adams also promised to fight for the creation of a so-called BitBond, probably referring to a municipal bond backed by bitcoin.

Such a bond could potentially allow residents of New York to gain exposure to the top cryptocurrency in a tax-advantaged way. The instrument would also enable the city to raise capital.

Adams did not provide details about the city’s potential BitBond. However, the Bitcoin Policy Institute released a policy brief in March advocating for BitBonds that would use 90% of their proceeds to fund government and 10% to purchase bitcoin.

Holders of the bond would receive 1% interest annually for 10 years. Upon maturity of the bond, they would also receive 100% of bitcoin’s upside up to 4.5% compounded return, then 50% of all remaining upside. Any remaining bitcoin gains would be used to constitute the government’s bitcoin reserve.

Adams, who was first elected as a Democrat, is currently running for re-election as an independent.

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JD Vance Calls Crypto Market Structure Bill a ‘Priority’ for Trump Administration

Published

2 часа ago

28 мая, 2025

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LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Establishing a clear and pro-innovation regulatory framework for the crypto industry via a market structure bill is a priority for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, Vice President J.D. Vance said Wednesday.

Speaking to a massive crowd at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas, Vance said that a regulatory framework is necessary to fully incorporate cryptocurrency into the mainstream U.S. economy, as well as to prevent future governments from rolling back the Trump administration’s crypto-friendly policies.

“I hope that our party is in charge for a long time, but nothing is ever guaranteed in politics. So the best way to ensure that crypto is part of the mainstream economy is through a market structure bill that champions and doesn’t restrict the extraordinary value that bitcoin and other digital assets represent,” Vance said at the event, which organizers said drew about 35,000 attendees. “We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to unleash innovation and use it to improve the lives of countless American citizens, but if we fail to create regulatory clarity now, we risk chasing this $3 trillion industry offshore in search of a friendlier jurisdiction, and President Trump is going to fight to fight to make sure that does not happen.”

Vance said the Trump administration is hopeful that the GENIUS Act, the Senate’s stablecoin bill, will hit the president’s desk soon, allowing Congress to turn its attention to a market structure bill.

He also said that the administration continues to work to “clean up the wreckage that the [Biden] administration left us,” including the so-called “regulation by enforcement” approach to crypto practiced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under then-Chair Gary Gensler, and the widespread debanking of crypto companies, dubbed by the industry as Operation Chokepoint 2.0.

“Operation Chokepoint 2.0 is dead and it’s not coming back under the Trump administration,” Vance said. “We reject the Biden administration’s legacy of death by a thousand enforcement actions… We fired Gary Gensler, and we’re gonna fire everybody like him,» he added, though Gensler resigned the day Trump was sworn in

Vance thanked the crypto industry, including Gemini’s Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss and Coinbase, for their early support of Trump’s campaign, attributing some of its success — as well as the successful elections of other crypto-friendly politicians like Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) — to the crypto industry’s political support.

“Take the momentum of your political involvement in 2024 and carry it forward into 2026 and beyond,” Vance said.

In addition to urging the industry to stay involved in U.S. politics, Vance asked bitcoiners to stay abreast of developments in artificial intelligence (AI).

“Remember that what happens in AI is very much going to affect, in good and bad ways, what happens to bitcoin and, of course, what happens to bitcoin is very much going to affect what happens in AI,” Vance said, adding:

“Make sure you’re keeping tabs on and staying involved in what’s happening in artificial intelligence. I don’t want America to be negatively affected by what’s happening in AI, and the best way to ensure that smart people are at the AI conversation is to ensure that Bitcoin is part of the artificial intelligence conversation.”