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08/19/2024

Polychain Leads $6.7M Investment Into Corn, a New Bitcoin Yield Network

Corn aims to unlock over $1.1 trillion in Bitcoin liquidity for DeFi applications. Polychain Capital has announced a $6.7 million investment into a new Bitcoin-focused yield network. The investment went to Corn, a new Ethereum layer-2 (L2) network that uses a tokenized version of Bitcoin (BTC) to pay gas fees and power on-chain economic incentives, under the ticker BTCN. Corn launched on August 19 with the goal of expanding the utility of the world's first cryptocurrency and introducing new yield opportun

Polychain Leads $6.7M Investment Into Corn, a New Bitcoin Yield Network

Corn aims to unlock over $1.1 trillion in Bitcoin liquidity for DeFi applications.

Polychain Capital has announced a $6.7 million investment into a new Bitcoin-focused yield network.

The investment went to Corn, a new Ethereum layer-2 (L2) network that uses a tokenized version of Bitcoin (BTC) to pay gas fees and power on-chain economic incentives, under the ticker BTCN.

Corn launched on August 19 with the goal of expanding the utility of the world's first cryptocurrency and introducing new yield opportunities, according to Chris Spadafora, founder of Corn and BadgerDAO.

He told Cointelegraph:

"By aligning network participants through the power of Super Yield Farming, ensuring base utility of the token, and putting Bitcoin in the driver's seat, Corn is definitely not just another chain."

The 2024 bull cycle saw the launch of numerous new yield opportunities for crypto investors. In February, Ethena's synthetic dollar USDe launched with an annualized yield of 27.6%.

Despite widespread concerns about the sustainability of such high yields, Ethena became crypto's top-earning decentralized application after surpassing $6.8 million in daily revenue on March 8.

Corn's BTCN Could Unlock Bitcoin Liquidity for DeFi

With a market cap exceeding $1.1 trillion, Bitcoin holds an enormous pool of locked liquidity that emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) sectors could tap into.

Unlocking Bitcoin's trillion-dollar liquidity is one of Corn's primary objectives, according to Spadafora, who said:

"BTCN unlocks Bitcoin liquidity for DeFi. Users can bridge native BTC, use tokenized BTC, and/or mine BTC secured with a trusted custodian. For the first time, it's not an either/or decision."

The new yield protocol has drawn investment from several prominent crypto firms, including Binance Labs, Framework Ventures, HTX Ventures, and Relayer Capital.

How Does Corn Generate Yield?

Corn aims to build a network-wide "Crop Circle" where users, applications, and token holders are aligned within a unified ecosystem through the BTCN token.

To build a sustainable yield protocol, Corn will primarily generate revenue through native token emissions alongside transaction fee income, Spadafora explained:

"Yield comes from native CORN emissions issued per block, bribes that Corn stakers receive from outside parties who want their votes directed a certain way, and finally transaction fees from the network in the form of BTCN redistributed to Corn stakers."

Unlike most yield protocols, Corn launches without a fixed yield rate. The yield rate will depend primarily on ecosystem growth and the number of participants joining the protocol through Corn's flywheel mechanism.