Bitcoin Mining Pools Back Smart Contract Framework BitVM

Bitlayer's BitVM smart contract framework has gained support from major mining pools, including Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool, which control 31.5% of Bitcoin's total hashrate. This move allows Bitcoin to support smart contracts without altering its base protocol, expanding its use cases and strengthening miner revenues as block rewards decrease. The initiative aims to bridge Bitcoin with DeFi ecosystems and layer-2 solutions, offering users a more powerful alternative while preserving Bitcoin's security and decentralization.

Bitlayer, a Bitcoin Layer 2 built on the BitVM paradigm, has secured a significant partnership with three major Bitcoin mining pools—Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool. These mining pools collectively control 31.5% of Bitcoin's total hashrate [1], [2]. The collaboration aims to accelerate the real-world adoption of BitVM, a technology focused on enabling Bitcoin-native DeFi applications.

Bitcoin's ecosystem has historically lagged behind other Layer 1 blockchains like Ethereum due to its lack of support for Turing-complete smart contracts. Bitlayer's BitVM paradigm addresses this limitation by offering Bitcoin-equivalent security and Turing completeness without altering Bitcoin's core protocol or compromising its foundational design [1], [2]. However, the successful deployment of BitVM requires the cooperation of miners, who validate transactions and create new blocks in exchange for Bitcoin rewards.

The partnership involves these mining pools agreeing to support non-standard transactions (NSTs), a critical component of BitVM's challenge-response mechanism. NSTs are transactions that are valid under Bitcoin's consensus rules but are not relayed by the default Bitcoin Core software, making them hard to confirm on-chain without miner cooperation. By supporting NSTs, Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool remove a key bottleneck to BitVM deployment, bringing the system closer to widespread use [1], [2].

Under this partnership, Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool will serve as guardians of the BitVM Bridge, ensuring NSTs are reliably included in blocks and become part of Bitcoin's immutable ledger. The BitVM Bridge facilitates secure and reliable movement of BTC into other blockchain ecosystems, such as rollups, cross-chain protocols, and smart contracts, without relying on centralized intermediaries. This opens the door for broader Bitcoin DeFi applications while preserving the network's robust security guarantees [1], [2].

The partnership is not just a milestone for Bitlayer; it is also a strategic win for miners. As per-block Bitcoin rewards are halved every four years, miners face dwindling income. Bitlayer's BitVM can help drive new economic activity and fee-based income for miners by enabling BTC to flow into DeFi and Layer 2 ecosystems. This means more use, more fees, and long-term sustainability for miners [1], [2].

Andy, CEO of Antpool, noted that Bitlayer's BitVM can help drive new economic activity and fee-based income for miners. Leon Liang, chief strategy officer at F2Pool, emphasized the importance of innovation, while SpiderPool CTO Kenway spoke to the broader potential of Bitcoin as a financial services platform [1], [2].

Bitlayer's collaboration with major mining pools follows recent integrations with major Layer 1 ecosystems like Sui, Base, Arbitrum, and Starknet. These partnerships reflect a growing demand for secure, Bitcoin-native DeFi infrastructure that scales [1], [2].

References:

[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitlayer-joins-forces-antpool-f2pool-010000604.html
[2] https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/05/27/bitlayer-joins-forces-with-antpool-f2pool-and-spiderpool-to-supercharge-bitcoin-defi