How did Merlin Chain rise to prominence?
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How did Merlin Chain rise to prominence?
Merlin has rapidly risen to become the fifth-largest Bitcoin Layer2 network by TVL globally, leveraging an asset-driven, bottom-up launch model and a vibrant first-layer NFT community.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: @BMANLead
Translation: Baicai Blockchain
1. The Mysterious Eastern Force: Merlin Layer2
Just two weeks after its mainnet launch, a new Bitcoin Layer2 network has achieved a miracle—surpassing @Blast_L2 and @solana to become the network with the highest total value locked (TVL). That network is @MerlinLayer2.
As of February 26, Merlin Chain’s total TVL has exceeded $2.1 billion, ranking fifth among all blockchains.
Merlin has also launched over $420 million worth of NFTs, making it the second-largest NFT chain after Ethereum. This includes 220,000 Bitmaps, 4,800 Goosinals NFTs, and 160,000 BRC-420 ecosystem assets.
2. How Did Merlin Rise So Quickly?
Merlin has gained astonishing momentum in the East, but the West has yet to fully feel this "mysterious Eastern force." Therefore, I’ve compiled a timeline to review Merlin’s rise, thanks to the efforts of @Web3Loon:
Merlin's Rise Timeline:
June 17, 2023: @rcsvio posted their first tweet and launched http://RCSV.io (Recursiverse), enabling SVG stitching creation; allowing recursive referencing of other 2D inscriptions to generate new works.
July 17, 2023: The http://BRC420.io protocol was released, treating inscriptions as modular building blocks for the Ordinals stack.
July 31, 2023: Bitmap Explorer (http://Bitmap.Game), a visual panel based on Bitmaps, was launched for social, gaming, and trading activities.
September 19, 2023: The BRC-420 marketplace launched, and the first asset under BRC-420—the Blue Box—was deployed.
November 15, 2023: Announced the Bitmap token swap program: 1 Bitmap could be exchanged for 1,000 $WMAP, doubling Bitmap’s price; at the same time, the Blue Box price rose to $1,000.
December 26, 2023: Rebranded to @BitmapTech; OKX added support for BRC-420.
January 19, 2024: Officially announced the Bitcoin Layer2 network—@MerlinLayer2.
January 26, 2024: Launched the Merlin Chain testnet bridge.
February 3, 2024: Blue Box price reached $40,000, becoming the third-largest 10k-series NFT in the market, behind only BAYC and Punks.
February 4, 2024: @ABCDELabs announced a lead investment in BitmapTech.
February 5, 2024: Merlin Chain launched its Launchpad on @ParticleNtwrk and released 1% of governance token $MERL.
February 8, 2024: Merlin’s Seal staking officially went live, fairly distributing 20% of $MERL.
February 9, 2024: @OKX_Ventures announced an investment in BitmapTech.
February 10, 2024: The first Merlin Chain Launchpad event concluded, with over 1 million participating addresses.
February 23, 2024: Merlin Chain’s TVL surpassed $2 billion, exceeding both Solana and Blast, ranking fifth across all chains.
Merlin Asset Dashboard: https://geniidata.com/ordinals/index/merlin?ref=K62O1R
Merlin surpassed Solana and Blast within just 14 days—not merely due to those two weeks, but because of the team’s deep roots in the Bitcoin ecosystem, evolving from Recursiverse to Bitmap Explorer, then to BRC420, and ultimately to Merlin Chain.
3. My Three Takeaways from Merlin’s Rise:
1) The Bitcoin ecosystem will give rise to 10 unicorn-level Bitcoin Layer2 networks.
Following the emergence of Ordinals, BRC20, BITVM, and others, Bitcoin has transformed from being merely a store-of-value currency into a full-fledged ecosystem—from interest-free assets to yield-bearing ones. This has led to an explosion in Bitcoin ecosystem assets and Layer2 solutions, with Merlin standing out as the brightest star. When Ethereum’s market cap reached $300 billion, the total market cap of ERC-20 tokens was also around $300 billion. Today, with Bitcoin’s market cap reaching $1 trillion, the total market cap of BRC assets remains under $10 billion—a potential growth space of 99x.
2) Assets driving Layer2, not Layer2 driving assets.
In terms of Layer2 strategy, Bitmap is unique. Unlike other Layer2 solutions that follow a “build the Layer2 first, then create assets” approach, Bitmap adopted a “build assets on Bitcoin first, then build the Layer2” model, bringing its leading Layer1 assets and strong user base into Merlin. Merlin has already built the largest Layer1 asset community, featuring the Blue Box with a market cap of $350 million and a community of over 1 million addresses.
3) Bottom-up asset issuance, not top-down.
Merlin follows a bottom-up issuance model, driven by the community—from assets to ecosystem. Merlin’s native assets, including the Blue Box and BRC420, were entirely built from the ground up through fair, community-led distribution. Only after the community fully owns these assets does development proceed around them. This is the complete opposite of most L1 or L2 projects, which typically start with an idea, allocate tokens, and develop products to attract builders—following a top-down approach. In the Bitcoin ecosystem, however, the process is completely inverted: the community first discovers assets, fairly issues them, and then builds applications, ecosystems, and utilities on top. This is precisely why Merlin attracted $2 billion in TVL within just 14 days.
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