Sovryn launches complete suite for Bitcoin DeFi on RSK

Sovryn, a decentralized finance platform operating on the RSK Bitcoin sidechain, announced on Tuesday its public launch. Users can now access a full suite for trading Bitcoin (BTC) in a trustless, noncustodial environment, benefiting from powerful leverage and yield opportunities.

The platform presents a mix of major DeFi building blocks, including a collateralized lending protocol and automated market maker exchange. Users can trade long or short with up to five-times leverage, while holders of Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT) and the Dollar on Chain (DOC) stablecoin can earn interest by lending their assets.

Later in December, the project plans to launch decentralized governance forked from Compound’s contracts. RSK is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, thus supporting Ethereum’s Solidity smart contract language.

Sovryn users who join early will have exclusive access to the sale of its governance tokens, planned for the first quarter of 2021. The tokens will allow holders to participate in governance, though the team introduced a staking requirement: The longer the tokens are staked, the more voting power they acquire.

Prior to launch, Sovryn held an oversubscribed investment round for $2.1 million, choosing the figure for its symbolic significance for Bitcoin. The round was led by Greenfield One and included Collider Ventures, Monday Capital and other undisclosed investors. Collider Labs and BlockVenture provided initial capital and development support.

The RSK sidechain recently saw a slew of upgrades and projects building on it. The project offers a faster, smart contract-enabled blockchain secured by merge-mining with Bitcoin. Its native token is rBTC, a wrapped version of Bitcoin. Recently, the project announced that it upgraded the bridge to allow trustless Bitcoin transfers to the sidechain.

The RSK ecosystem is also gradually building out DeFi protocol building blocks, already featuring a stablecoin-generating protocol in Dollar on Chain. It has also developed an alternative type of decentralized exchange platform, which uses a hybrid model between order books and automated market makers.