Guests:

- Jeroen Develter, COO of Persistence One

- Chandra Duggirala, Founder of Portal to Bitcoin

- Jake Gordon, Co-Founder of Nexio

Top 3 Key Takeaways from Our Guests

1. Bitcoin dominance is reshaping market dynamics.

The guests agreed that Bitcoin’s market dominance is strengthening—but for different reasons than in past cycles. Chandra pointed to the fundamental change triggered by ETF approvals, noting that institutional capital flowing into Bitcoin today doesn’t follow the same path as retail did in previous years. Instead of rotating into altcoins, this capital remains in Bitcoin, tightening its relationship with macroeconomic trends.

Jeroen expanded on this idea, explaining that Bitcoin is no longer just a “digital gold” narrative. With the growing presence of Layer 2s and infrastructure upgrades like Taproot, BTC is becoming the gravitational center for development. Jake emphasized that cultural perceptions have also shifted—Bitcoin is no longer a fringe asset. With governments and corporations beginning to accumulate BTC, the network is gaining legitimacy in ways that were unthinkable just a few years ago.

2. Technical maturity is powering new use cases.

Beyond market sentiment, each speaker highlighted the significant leaps in technical capability across the Bitcoin ecosystem. Jeroen explained how Persistence enables secure, seamless asset swaps across the dozens of emerging BTC variants—without relying on risky bridges. Their intent-based solution creates a new paradigm for interoperability across Bitcoin L2s, improving composability and user experience.

Chandra described how Portal is solving the long-standing problem of trustless cross-chain trading. Portal enables exchange-like speed without custody or bridge-based vulnerabilities by building on atomic swaps and implementing channel factory-based scaling. Jake, meanwhile, discussed Nexio’s mission to bring familiar tooling and development environments to Bitcoin, empowering builders to deploy DeFi protocols using the Move VM and scaling frameworks typically found on more developer-friendly chains.

3. The Ecosystem is growing—quietly but powerfully.

What surprised the guests most over the past year was the speed at which Bitcoin’s narrative and infrastructure have matured. Chandra acknowledged that he initially underestimated the cultural and technical impact of Ordinals and BRC-20s, which have evolved from a novelty into a major driver of attention and experimentation within the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Jake pointed to the rise of treasury strategies among publicly traded companies, highlighting that more firms are beginning to follow MicroStrategy’s playbook and treat BTC as a strategic reserve asset. Meanwhile, Jeroen reflected on the unexpected surge in Bitcoin staking and yield-generating mechanisms, particularly around the Babylon ecosystem. What once seemed incompatible with Bitcoin’s architecture—staking, DeFi, and cross-chain liquidity—is now becoming foundational for its next growth phase.