Bifrost: Infrastructure Guardian Beyond Bull and Bear Markets
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Bifrost: Infrastructure Guardian Beyond Bull and Bear Markets
Those who remain are the guardians; only what proves useful over time becomes true value.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights
At the beginning of 2026, the cryptocurrency market experienced another sharp volatility, with Bitcoin and other major crypto assets plunging significantly in price over a short period. Within less than a week, Bitcoin fell more than 30% from near its all-time high, while the total market capitalization shrank by over $300 billion in just a few days.
According to authoritative reports from Reuters and other outlets, Bitcoin breached multiple key support levels in rapid succession, triggering a multi-trillion-dollar erosion in global crypto market valuation. In the short term, $100 million to $250 million worth of Bitcoin positions were liquidated—causing severe losses for investors. Such dramatic swings in price and market value reflect the cryptocurrency market’s ongoing developmental stage; however, this volatility does not signal a decline in the underlying ecosystem or infrastructure value.
Yet industry insiders point out that such volatility is not an inherent problem of the crypto industry itself, but rather a market response closely tied to macroeconomic factors. As some media analyses observe, the current “plunge” reflects a natural reaction to global economic pressures, policy uncertainty, and broader macro-environmental shifts—not a rejection of the industry’s long-term potential.
McKinsey’s 2025 Private Markets Report notes that global private equity continues increasing allocations to infrastructure-focused projects even under conditions of instability—indicating that professional investors prioritize long-term asset value over short-term price fluctuations during periods of macro turbulence.
Although debate persists around short-term market direction, one fact has become increasingly clear: price volatility has never altered the decisive role of technological infrastructure in the industry’s long-term development.
For the crypto market, infrastructure functions like the “heart” of other industries—it not only powers the entire ecosystem’s operations but also sustains its resilience amid market fluctuations. Bifrost exemplifies this new force within crypto infrastructure: it looks beyond short-term market gyrations to deliver robust, long-term support.
The “Infrastructure Watchdogs” of the Crypto Market
If we view the crypto market as a liquidity network composed of dozens of mainnets, countless applications, and diverse assets, then what truly determines whether this network can operate sustainably over the long term is not price itself—but rather the efficiency of the infrastructure hidden beneath the price.
As multiple industry researchers observe, a recurring pattern across past bull and bear cycles is this: prices inevitably retreat cyclically, yet infrastructure once adopted rarely exits the scene.
This insight is repeatedly validated in the liquid staking sector. According to statistics from multiple on-chain data platforms, since 2022, even during market downturns, the total staked value on PoS chains and lock-up volume in LST protocols have shown structural growth overall. This trend reflects not speculative sentiment, but rather the market’s enduring demand for “capital efficiency”—how to unlock liquidity from locked assets without compromising security or yield.
Against this backdrop, industry attention has gradually shifted away from “staking yield” alone toward how staked assets can be reintegrated into more complex financial architectures—including DeFi, cross-chain ecosystems, and real-world assets (RWAs). Annual reports from several research institutions note that liquid staking protocols operating across chains are evolving from single-function products into yield-layer infrastructure—playing a role closer to that of a “settlement layer” or “liquidity hub.”
It is precisely amid such structural change that Bifrost has frequently emerged as a reference case in industry discussions. Unlike traditional staking protocols serving only a single chain, cross-chain liquid staking is increasingly seen as a pathway to resolving asset fragmentation in the multi-chain era. Its core value lies not in yield advantages on any one chain, but in its ability to provide standardized, composable yield instruments across different ecosystems.
Bifrost’s design was rooted from the outset in the practical demands of a multi-chain reality. Today’s crypto world has evolved from a single-chain paradigm to one where multiple chains coexist. With rapid growth across Layer-1s, Layer-2s, and application-specific chains, more and more value and user experience are distributed across chains. Yet most staking solutions remain confined within individual chains—a fragmentation that incurs massive losses in capital efficiency.
On-chain data shows adoption of such infrastructure is steadily materializing. Currently, Bifrost-related protocols have been integrated into over 30 distinct ecosystem contexts, spanning multiple Layer-1s and application chains; the number of addresses holding its liquid staking tokens (vTokens) exceeds 27,000, while addresses holding its native token have surpassed 130,000. These metrics are commonly used by research institutions as key indicators to assess whether a protocol has entered a stable adoption phase—not merely reflecting short-term market hype.
More notably, during the industry’s broader correction phase, protocol-level revenue and sustainability have risen in importance. On-chain data reveals that Bifrost-related protocols have generated cumulative revenue exceeding $8 million—and maintained positive cash flow across multiple market cycles. Such a feature is uncommon in today’s market environment, bringing Bifrost closer to the profile of a traditionally defined “long-running infrastructure.”
Faroo’s Successful Deployment on Pharos Chain
If foundational architecture represents theoretical underpinnings in technical logic, then Faroo’s deployment on the Pharos chain serves as tangible proof of Bifrost’s years of technical exploration and ecosystem building. Pharos is a Layer-1 ecosystem designed to unify Web2 and Web3, support real-world assets (RWAs), and enable cross-chain liquidity—embodying the cutting edge of convergence between traditional and emerging financial systems.
On the Pharos chain, Bifrost delivers a liquid staking solution for Faroo via its SLPx architecture, enabling native Pharos assets to participate in staking while retaining full liquidity. This means users not only earn staking rewards but can also deploy those assets across various DeFi strategies within the Pharos ecosystem—enhancing overall capital efficiency. Official community announcements state that Faroo is built atop Bifrost’s SLPx protocol and cross-chain bridging solution, allowing users to accrue automatic yield on Pharos mainnet tokens while preserving liquidity continuously.
Additionally, China’s Securities Regulatory Commission recently issued the “Regulatory Guidelines on Offshore Issuance of Tokenized Asset-Backed Securities by Domestic Assets.” Rather than simply tightening oversight, these guidelines establish a compliance framework and issuance standard—representing a significant policy milestone for institutions actively engaged in tokenized assets (e.g., Pharos), promoting industry standardization and international business expansion.
Prior to this, offshore issuance of tokenized securities backed by domestic assets existed in a regulatory gray zone, deterring enterprises from advancing such initiatives due to legal risk concerns. Now that a clear regulatory framework is in place, blockchain projects like Pharos can map out compliant pathways with greater clarity—accelerating product launch timelines and reducing regulatory uncertainty.
With registration requirements and other thresholds now clearly defined, projects or platforms that proactively meet policy criteria and complete registration will likely gain stronger recognition from domestic regulators and greater opportunities for international collaboration. Faroo’s real-world deployment carries multilayered significance. First, it validates the universality and adaptability of Bifrost’s cross-chain architecture across diverse chain ecosystems. Second, it demonstrates how, within an emerging Layer-1 ecosystem, yield-layer infrastructure can bridge native staking with DeFi applications. Most importantly, it proves that full-stack liquid staking is not only technically feasible in live production environments—but is already generating real user returns.
Moreover, by integrating OpenGov and vToken Voting mechanisms, Bifrost restores governance rights to stakers—not concentrating them with protocol developers or intermediaries. This design aligns with crypto’s core decentralization values and ensures platform users become genuine stakeholders in the system. In prior LST models, users often forfeited governance rights in exchange for liquidity—a dynamic that weakened overall ecosystem decentralization. Bifrost’s governance model directly addresses this structural issue, thereby strengthening long-term ecosystem resilience.
A Narrative Beyond Bull and Bear Cycles: Returning to Real Financial Needs
In highly volatile market environments, stability and long-term returns are regaining prominence as top priorities for capital. This shift is not unique to crypto markets. Whether gold, crude oil, or Bitcoin—increasingly viewed as a “digital safe-haven asset”—all ultimately trade on the same underlying factor: global macro sentiment. Interest-rate expectations, monetary liquidity, geopolitical developments, and risk appetite determine capital flows—not the narrative surrounding any single asset.
Thus, sharp volatility does not indicate systemic failure; more often, it is simply the natural mapping of macro cycles onto asset prices. History repeatedly shows that what truly endures across cycles is not the asset chased at emotional peaks—but the infrastructure persistently used and continuously integrated into financial structures during troughs.
This truth is especially evident in crypto. Traditional staking emphasizes security and yield, yet often sacrifices liquidity—forcing large amounts of capital to remain “frozen” in uncertain macro environments. As markets gradually return to rationality, capital is assessing more pragmatically: Is there a way to preserve yield attributes while still participating in broader financial activities?
It is precisely upon this real-world need that cross-chain liquid staking and yield-layer infrastructure have gained repeated attention. They do not attempt to oppose market cycles, but instead acknowledge their inevitability—and enhance capital efficiency, unlock liquidity, and strengthen composability to help assets retain functionality across varying market phases. This logic mirrors the evolutionary path of “underlying asset layers” in traditional finance—not that of speculative tools.
From this perspective, long-termism is not indifference to price volatility, but rather a deliberate choice—to consistently build foundational structures needed regardless of market cycle, even as macro sentiment swings back and forth. Cross-chain interoperability, composable yields, and decentralized governance are not fleeting trends, but fundamental challenges that become unavoidable once multi-chain coexistence and asset fragmentation become the norm.
Lurpis, Founder of Bifrost, once stated: “If you believe the future points toward a global monetary system, the gradual decline of traditional finance, and AI handling most transaction decisions and execution for us, then there is only one rational and realistic course: stop doubting, stop waiting in place—and start building the technologies and products the market truly needs.”
If gold became gold not because of its short-term price, but because its store-of-value properties were repeatedly validated over millennia, then the true “digital gold” of the crypto world will likewise emerge from those who patiently build infrastructure—enduring bull and bear cycles alike.
Those who remain are the watchkeepers; and what stands the test of time becomes true value.
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