Rootstock saw QoQ growth in Q4 in total transactions and merged-mining participation, reflecting slightly higher throughput alongside stronger miner-secured network security.
In contrast, user activity and liquidity softened QoQ in alignment with broader market trends, with declines across average daily transactions, active addresses, new addresses, DeFi TVL (USD and rBTC terms), total protocol TVL, and aggregate stablecoin TVL.
Key technical progress focused on bridge hardening and developer tooling: Reed 8.0 went live on mainnet with SegWit-enabled PowPeg (reducing BTC peg-out costs), Flyover v2.3 introduced improved automation and UX for bridging, and Reed 8.1 advanced testnet scalability work through parallel transaction processing, alongside early-stage post-quantum security research.
Rootstock saw the launch of Rootstock Institutional, a strategic initiative aimed at helping professionals tap into an estimated $260 billion in idle institutional Bitcoin by integrating BTC into DeFi. Additionally, Mercado Bitcoin deployed over $20 million in tokenized private credit on the Rootstock sidechain.
The RootstockCollective DAO scaled its governance stack in Q4 with V7.0, V7.1, V8.0, and V8.1, improving onboarding (fiat-to-RIF onramp + social login), expanding rewards flexibility through USDRIF payouts, adding mobile proposal/voting support, and continuing structured grant execution across tooling, ecosystem growth programs, and delegate compensation.
Primer
Rootstock is a permissionless Bitcoin sidechain that launched its mainnet in January 2018. The project extends Bitcoin by enabling smart contract functionality while preserving Bitcoin’s security and monetary properties. Rather than introducing a native token, Rootstock uses BTC as its base asset in the form of “programmable Bitcoin” (rBTC), a token that maintains a two-way peg to Bitcoin.
rBTC is used for gas fees on Rootstock. The token allows owners to interact with decentralized applications (dApps) on the Rootstock network for minting, swaps, and more. rBTC uses the PowPeg bridging system that connects Bitcoin and Rootstock, while also developing a new BitVMX-powered bridging mechanism targeted for launch in 2026.
Rootstock’s total revenue declined 12.3% QoQ to $156,885 in Q4 from $178,943 in Q3, and was down 57.1% YoY versus $360,841 in Q4 2024. In Bitcoin terms, revenue was essentially flat at 1.6 rBTC (−0.2% QoQ) but still fell 63.8% YoY from 4.3 rBTC. Average transaction fees also eased after rising in Q3, falling to $0.2 (−15.7% QoQ, −44.2% YoY) and 0.0000020 rBTC (−2.9% QoQ, −52.9% YoY), which explains why revenue declined even as total transactions ticked up.
Network Overview
Merge Mining
In Q4, Rootstock remained strongly secured by Bitcoin miners, with average merged-mining participation rising to 88.0%, up 3.7% QoQ from 84.8% in Q3. On a YoY basis, participation increased 51.7% versus Q4 2024 from 58.0% to 88.0%, reflecting a materially higher share of blocks being merge-mined. Across the quarter, daily merged-mining levels were consistently high, with most days clustered in the mid-80% to low-90% range and only brief dips toward the low-80s, signaling sustained miner alignment through October–December.
Total Transactions
Rootstock’s total transaction count increased 2.9% QoQ, from 761,178 in Q3 to 783,286 in Q4. On a YoY basis, total transactions were down 23.1%, compared with 1.0 million in Q4 2024.
Addresses
Rootstock’s user activity declined, with average daily active addresses falling 33.1% QoQ to 280 (from 420 in Q3), while average daily new addresses declined 35.5% QoQ to 26 (from 40 in Q3). On a YoY basis, average daily active addresses were down 18.9% versus Q4 2024, from 346 to 280. Similarly, average daily new addresses dropped 49.2% from 51 to 26, signaling weaker user engagement and onboarding both sequentially and year-over-year.
Ecosystem Overview
DeFi Diversity is a metric that gauges the maturity, decentralization, and robustness of a decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem on a specific blockchain network. It reflects how widely the total value locked (TVL) is distributed across the protocols operating on that network. Notably, in Q4, Rootstock’s DeFi diversity index maintained stability QoQ, reflecting a steady distribution of TVL within the ecosystem beyond its core incumbents, though it was up YoY, rising from 3 in Q4 2024 to 4 in Q4 2025.
DeFi TVL
Rootstock’s DeFi TVL pulled back in Q4 after steady gains earlier in the year due to overall crypto market conditions. Average daily DeFi TVL (USD) fell 24.9% QoQ to $197.0 million from $262.4 million in Q3, and was down 3.3% YoY versus $203.6 million in Q4 2024. In rBTC terms, average daily DeFi TVL declined 14.5% QoQ to 2,302 rBTC from 2,396 rBTC in Q3, representing a 20.5% YoY decrease from 2,473 rBTC in Q4 2024.
DeFi TVL by Protocol
In Q4, Rootstock’s DeFi liquidity consolidated and remained anchored in its top venues. Money On Chain stayed the largest protocol but fell 24.6% QoQ to $78.4 million, down 28.8% YoY, accounting for 48.0% of the quarter’s $163.2 million total TVL. Sovryn also declined materially, dropping 33.9% QoQ to $44.7 million (-38.2% YoY) and representing 27.4% of TVL. Uniswap, down 54.3% QoQ to $17.5 million, though it was still up 33.4% YoY, making up 10.7% of TVL.
Among smaller protocols, RIF On Chain grew 13.0% QoQ to $10.3 million (-19.5% YoY), while Tropykus Finance declined 21.4% QoQ to $11.2 million but remained up 81.0% YoY, reflecting strong expansion from a lower base. BabelFish decreased 15.7% QoQ to $1.0 million (+18.8% YoY), and Others fell 26.5% QoQ to $5.1 million (+6.2%% YoY). Overall TVL declined 30.3% QoQ to $168 million (-23.6% YoY), with MoneyOnChain, Sovryn, and Uniswap collectively comprising ~86% of total TVL in Q4 due to overall market conditions.
Stablecoins
In Q4, Rootstock’s stablecoin landscape shifted again amid a continued contraction in aggregate balances. DOC remained the largest stablecoin, ending the quarter at $3.7 million in TVL (-7.6% QoQ, +17.2% YoY) and representing 28.8% of the network’s $12.8 million total stablecoin TVL. USDT rebounded sharply to $3.2 million (+75.5% QoQ, -42.4% YoY), taking 25.3% share and posting the largest sequential gain among major assets.
On the other hand, DLLR fell to $2.1 million (-42.0% QoQ, -25.3% YoY), sliding to 16.4% share, while XUSD declined to $1.9 million (-13.2% QoQ, +15.6% YoY) for a 14.6% share. USDRIF softened slightly to $1.5 million (-8.5% QoQ, +72.7% YoY), accounting for 11.5% of the total. “Others” contracted to $425,931 (-38.4% QoQ, -21.9% YoY) and made up 3.3% of TVL. Overall, stablecoin TVL fell 8.0% QoQ to $12.8 million (-12.4% YoY), reflecting broad-based contraction rather than a simple rotation between leading assets.
Ecosystem Highlights
Rootstock’s ecosystem continued to expand in Q4, with new partnerships and integrations improving distribution, accessibility, and real-world utility across the BTCFi stack. Most notably, Korbitlisted RIF, expanding access to the Korean market, boosting liquidity and regional exposure in one of crypto’s most active economies, and making it easier for more users to participate in DAO governance, support builders, engage in community-defined incentive mechanism,s and access RIFOS ecosystem products like RNS. On the distribution front, Mercado Bitcoinadded key Rootstock assets (i.e., rBTC, RIF, and USDRIF) to one of Latin America’s largest exchanges, strengthening regional onramps, and separately advanced its $20 million RWA initiative, reinforcing Rootstock’s positioning as an emerging venue for tokenized real-world assets. Wallet support also broadened, with Temple Walletintegration improving usability for users interacting with Rootstock dApps, and Rabby Walletadding cross-chain swap support between Rootstock and other networks via Changelly, reducing friction for users moving liquidity in/out of the ecosystem.
A complete list of the projects being built can be seen via Rootstock’s Ecosystem Portal.
Roadmap Progress
On the roadmap, Q4 reflected continued execution on Rootstock’s BTCFi stack while setting up the next wave of bridge and institutional deliverables for 2026. The quarter included the launch of Rootstock Institutional, which is moving towards implementation. In parallel, Rootstock continued advancing its next-generation bridging roadmap, with the Vetiver Network Upgrade and Union Bridge, positioned as key in-development milestones targeted for future deployment through Rootstock’s bridge aggregator in 2026.
Technical Developments
Rootstock’s fourth quarter of 2025 was shaped by continued bridge hardening and developer-facing infrastructure upgrades, with progress split between mainnet-ready improvements and testnet-first work preparing future scalability upgrades. Together, these efforts strengthened Rootstock’s BTC↔rBTC pipeline, expanded tooling for builders, and advanced early research into long-term protocol resilience.
Reed 8.0
In October, Reed 8.0 introduced consensus-level bridge upgrades that made BTC↔rBTC transfers cheaper and set up Rootstock’s next bridge roadmap. The upgrade activated SegWit support for PowPeg (RSKIP-305), reducing BTC peg-out costs by ~60%, and added new secp256k1 precompiled contracts (RSKIP-516) to improve cryptographic efficiency. Together, these changes paved the way for expanding PowPeg’s signer set beyond nine (up to 20+ over time) and laid the groundwork for the BitVMX-powered Union Bridge. Beyond lower costs, the upgrade reinforced bridge scalability and security by modernizing transaction handling and strengthening Rootstock’s long-term bridging path toward more institutional-grade reliability.
MCP Server
In October, the MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server was introduced on Rootstock, expanding developer tooling by enabling builders to interact with Rootstock nodes via AI-driven prompts rather than manual workflows. The MCP Server supports querying onchain data, simulating transactions, and interacting with smart contracts in a structured way, positioning Rootstock as a more “AI-accessible” execution environment while lowering iteration costs for developers and integrators.
Flyover v2.3
In October, Flyover v2.3 went live, upgrading Rootstock’s bridge UX and automation capabilities. The release improved operational reliability through automated peg-ins/peg-outs, expanded peg-out compatibility (including smart contract peg-outs), and increased transaction limits for LP-supported flows, reducing friction for users moving BTC into Rootstock DeFi while improving tooling and transparency for liquidity providers.
Reed 8.1
In December, Reed 8.1 was released on Rootstock as a follow-up upgrade focused on stability improvements and testnet validation ahead of future mainnet changes. The release included the deployment of Parallel Transaction Processing on testnet, advancing Rootstock’s experimentation with higher-throughput execution and improving performance under more scalable transaction conditions.
Quantum Computing Protection Prep & Research
Early-stage research into post-quantum security planning continues on Rootstock, signaling that quantum protection remains in an exploratory phase rather than an implemented roadmap deliverable. While still research-driven, the initiative reflects longer-term thinking around safeguarding Bitcoin-aligned security assumptions as cryptographic risk horizons evolve.
Community Updates
Governance
Q4 specifically saw multiple grant executions, product upgrades, and incentive/community programs, reflecting the DAO’s continued transition toward a more structured and scalable governance model. On the platform side, RootstockCollective V7.0, V7.1, V8.0, and V8.1, marked four significant upgrades:
V7.0 introduced a native fiat-to-RIF on-ramp inside the dApp via Meld and Reown, reducing onboarding friction and simplifying access to staking, governance, and Collective Rewards.
V7.1 expanded functionality with Reown-powered social login (X/Google/Facebook), USDRIF-denominated Collective Rewards support, audit remediations, and a new governance capability laying groundwork for community-driven reward parameters.
V8.0 delivered official mobile support for browsing proposals and voting, while adding Collective Rewards transaction history reporting in desktop mode to improve transparency.
V8.1 added a new Beta Tools area and shipped the USD Vault Sandbox prototype screen, expanded transparency with staking/unstaking transaction history, improved exportability (CSV) for rewards/claims reporting, added multi-action proposal viewing for better Tally interoperability, and included additional mobile UX refinements.
Winks.fun – Milestone 2 (0.097 rBTC): advanced an SDK to bring Rootstock on-chain actions directly into X/Twitter via “Winks,” including staking hooks and post-transaction sharing flows.
USD Vault Sandbox Mode (1 USDRIF): approved a mainnet sandbox prototype in the Collective dApp to test ERC-4626-style USDRIF vault mechanics under controlled limits.
Rootstock QuestHub – Milestone 4 (0.0464 rBTC): a follow-on milestone funding request that failed (337,475 for vs. 908,188 against), signaling stricter scrutiny on milestone delivery and justification.
In governance operations, the DAO also continued formalizing participation loops and incentives. Cycle funding advanced more structured, ongoing support for ecosystem contributors and public goods, while the Collective surpassed 1,000 active members, marking a key adoption milestone and sustained community engagement. On the platform side, USDRIF payouts were introduced to expand Collective Rewards beyond RIF and rBTC, adding stablecoin-denominated distributions via USDRIF, which is collateralized by the RIF token.
Campaigns & Developer Initiatives
Community campaigns on Rootstock and developer initiatives in Q4 2025 continued to prioritize ecosystem growth through hands-on engagement, incentives, and builder education. Ongoing community touchpoints remained active, including developer community calls and recurring builder coordination formats, while the quarter also introduced several higher-signal programs and ecosystem narratives to accelerate Rootstock’s BTCFi adoption and developer throughput. Beyond these ongoing initiatives, other notable programs included:
Golden Sats Season 4
Rootstock community launched Golden Sats Season 4 in early November as the final installment of its campaign series, encouraging users to explore Rootstock DeFi protocols and transition from initial participation to sustained community engagement
Hacktivator 3.0 (Replit Edition)
The developer incentive engine was expanded on Rootstock through a special Replit edition of Hacktivator 3.0, focused on “fork-first” workflows and AI-assisted Solidity development. The program emphasized rapid iteration and lowered setup friction by allowing developers to fork templates, build new features, and earn rewards for meaningful open-source contributions.
Rootstock Scaffold
The developer onboarding funnel, created through the Hacktivator, on Rootstock continued to be improved through Rootstock Scaffold, a toolkit inspired by Scaffold-ETH that helps builders quickly create, deploy, and interact with smart contracts on Rootstock. By packaging common EVM developer workflows into a more streamlined setup, Scaffold reduced time-to-first-deployment for teams experimenting with BTCFi applications.
Builder Rootcamp
Builder Rootcamp, a 10-week cohort-based “learn-and-earn” program was launched on Rootstock, designed to move developers from onboarding to shipping production-ready work on Rootstock. The program combines live sessions, structured self-study, and weekly assignments that are completed through the Hacktivator Marketplace, creating a tight loop between learning and real code contributions. Approved work earns double Hacktivator rewards, and graduates receive Rootstock certification, a verified portfolio of contributions, and access to the invite-only RootstockCollective builder community, with Cohort 1 capped at 30 developers to keep mentorship and feedback high-touch.
General Development
Q4 2025 marked a clear shift in Rootstock’s strategy from “shipping primitives” to sharpening the story around who they’re for. Beyond incremental ecosystem traction, the quarter featured higher-signal moves aimed at reinforcing BTCFi’s institutional viability—both in how security and bridge architecture are positioned on Rootstock, and in how the network signals execution readiness. The result was a quarter defined by stronger narrative clarity and execution signaling, setting the foundation for Rootstock’s next phase of institutional BTCFi delivery.
Institutional BTCFi
Report
BTCFi thesis on Rootstock was pushed with the release of an Institutional BTCFi Report, framing Bitcoin-secured DeFi as a credible category for larger allocators and infrastructure providers. The report served as a strategic narrative tool—positioning Rootstock’s bridge design, security model, and lending stack as viable primitives for institutional BTC deployment.
Leadership Changes
Finally, RootstockLabs, as an important contributor within the Rootstock ecosystem, had Diego Gutierrez Zaldivar (RootstockLabs cofounder) return as CEO, alongside the appointment of two new board members, a notable governance and execution signal as the Rootstock community moves into its next phase of BTCFi delivery and ecosystem expansion.
Closing Summary
Rootstock’s Q4 saw a rebound in network throughput, as transactions ticked up modestly, while average daily active and new addresses fell from Q3. YoY, activity remained lower as user engagement and DeFi liquidity softened. At the same time, network security improved, with merged-mining participation rising to higher levels than both the prior quarter and the year-ago period, reflecting stronger miner alignment. On the DeFi side, TVL pulled back after steady gains earlier in 2025, and liquidity remained concentrated in a handful of incumbent protocols. Stablecoin balances also contracted overall, with DOC remaining the largest stablecoin via TVL, followed by USDT.
Ecosystem expansion prioritized institutional distribution channels and strategic partnerships: Korbit’s RIF listing expanded reach into Korea, Mercado Bitcoin added rBTC, RIF, and DOC while advancing its own independent $20 million RWA initiative, and wallet coverage broadened through Temple Wallet and Rabby’s cross-chain swaps powered by Changelly. On the roadmap, the quarter was framed around three BTCFi priorities: (i) Vetiver and Union Bridge as the next major bridge milestones in development for Rootstock’s BTC↔rBTC pipeline; and (ii) Rootstock Institutional, which has completed its strategic design phase and is now progressing toward full implementation and deployment. Technically, the quarter delivered meaningful progress in bridge and developer tooling: Reed 8.0 went live on mainnet with SegWit-enabled PowPeg and lower peg-out costs, Flyover v2.3 improved bridge automation and UX, and the MCP Server introduced AI-native developer interaction with Rootstock nodes. Meanwhile, Reed 8.1 advanced testnet validation for future scalability, including parallel transaction processing, and early-stage research into post-quantum security planning continued on Rootstock. Governance activity also scaled, with RootstockCollective shipping V7.0, V7.1, V8.0, and V.81, expanding onboarding (fiat-to-RIF onramp, social login), improving rewards flexibility via USDRIF payouts, adding mobile support, and continuing structured grant execution (including tooling, accelerators, regional growth programs, and delegate compensation). Rootstock’s institutional narrative also strengthened in Q4, supported by the release of an Institutional BTCFi Report that framed Bitcoin-secured DeFi as a credible category for larger allocators and infrastructure providers. In parallel, RootstockLabs, a key contributor to the Rootstock ecosystem, signaled renewed execution focus through internal leadership updates, including Diego’s return as CEO and the appointment of two new board members, reinforcing delivery momentum heading into Rootstock’s next BTCFi phase.
This report was commissioned by RootstockLabs. All content was produced independently by the author(s) and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Messari, Inc. or the organization that requested the report. The commissioning organization may have input on the content of the report, but Messari maintains editorial control over the final report to retain data accuracy and objectivity. Author(s) may hold cryptocurrencies named in this report. This report is meant for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as investment advice. You should conduct your own research and consult an independent financial, tax, or legal advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance of any asset is not indicative of future results. Please see our Terms of Service for more information.
No part of this report may be (a) copied, photocopied, duplicated in any form by any means or (b) redistributed without the prior written consent of Messari®.
