Portal to Bitcoin and Babylon Genesis Launch First Modular Custody-Less Cross-Chain Infrastructure

Portal to Bitcoin, a decentralized finance (DeFi) technology company, has announced a strategic integration with Babylon Genesis, a pioneer in trustless Bitcoin staking. This collaboration has resulted in the industry’s first modular, fully custody-less cross-chain infrastructure stack. This solution is designed to scale DeFi by leveraging the security of Bitcoin.

Through Babylon Genesis’s staking and timestamping protocols, combined with Portal’s BitScaler-powered Channel Factory, Bitcoin holders can now secure proof-of-stake (PoS) validators with native BTC. This integration allows for instant bridgeless atomic swaps between BTC and other assets such as ETH and SOL. Additionally, validator signatures and decentralized exchange (DEX) trades can be recorded immutably on the Bitcoin network.

Chandra Duggirala, Co-founder and CEO of Portal to Bitcoin, highlighted the significance of this integration, stating that Portal is transforming the Bitcoin blockspace into the settlement engine for various markets, including real-world assets (RWAs) and Web2 equities. Babylon Genesis’s timestamping extends the notary chain with the full security guarantees of Bitcoin.

Historically, Bitcoin’s role in DeFi has been constrained by custodial bridges and wrapped tokens like Wrapped BTC (WBTC). The integration with Babylon Genesis eliminates these barriers, allowing native BTC to be staked directly on PoS networks, traded across chains without synthetic representations, and used to finalize transactions with Bitcoin’s unchallenged immutability.

Clayton Menzel, Head of Business Development at Babylon Labs, emphasized that this integration demonstrates Bitcoin’s potential to serve as both the capital and the consensus layer for a new generation of cross-chain applications. By anchoring activity to Bitcoin, builders are no longer limited to choosing between composability and self-custody.

Both Portal and Babylon Genesis prioritize user sovereignty in their design philosophy. Portal employs a Layer 3 (L3) notary chain anchored to Bitcoin, while Babylon Genesis uses covenant emulation and EOTS-based slashing to ensure that staked BTC cannot be misappropriated. By leveraging cryptographic enforcement, Portal to Bitcoin and Babylon Genesis extend Bitcoin’s security measures to every connected chain, eliminating intermediaries.

Portal to Bitcoin is a custodyless L3 protocol that enables native atomic swaps between Bitcoin and other blockchains. Built on the BitScaler architecture, Portal facilitates secure and fast self-custodial trading without the need for bridges, wrapped assets, or third-party custody.

Babylon Labs develops Bitcoin security-sharing protocols to build a decentralized world secured by Bitcoin. Its key product is the first trustless Bitcoin staking protocol, allowing BTC holders to earn staking rewards on PoS chains without relinquishing custody, using bridges, or minting wrapped tokens.