BOB Becomes First Bitcoin Layer-2 Project to Join Optimism’s ‘Superchain’

Ethereum layer-2 Optimism’s “Superchain” has added a Bitcoin-native project to its ecosystem for the first time, CoinDesk is first to report.

BOB, a Bitcoin layer-2 project looking to expand development on the world’s oldest blockchain, has integrated with the Superchain ecosystem, built on Optimism’s OP Stack framework.

Under the deal, BOB will receive a grant from the Optimism Foundation of about $870,000, project officials confirmed to CoinDesk.

OP Stack is a toolkit that allows developers to build their own blockchains atop Ethereum layer-2 network Optimism.

BOB refers to itself as a “hybrid layer-2” network – built on Bitcoin but with Ethereum compatibility. Its aim is to create bridges between itself and layer-1 blockchains like Ethereum, with the ultimate goal of making Bitcoin the center of decentralized finance (DeFi).

“Joining the Superchain means doubling down on our hybrid vision and ensuring that Bitcoin builders on BOB always have the latest tech out of the box to use in their BTC products,” BOB co-founder Alexei Zamyatin told CoinDesk in a a Telegram message.

Optimism has attracted crypto exchange Coinbase to use OP Stack for its own blockchain, Base, as well as the rival exchange Kraken, which announced its own network, Ink, last week.

CoinDesk broke the news on Tuesday that as part of that deal, Kraken received a grant from the Optimism Foundation of 25 million OP tokens, worth about $42.5 million based on current pricing.

BOB’s price was evidently less steep. Its grant totaled 500,000 tokens, worth $870,000 based on OP’s current price of $1.74, project officials told CoinDesk.

Optimism remains well behind of rival Arbitrum among Ethereum layer-2 projects for total-value locked (TVL). Optimism has a TVL of just over $6 billion, compared to Arbitrum’s $13 billion.

But the wider family of projects using Optimism’s technology total over 40 rollups, with more than $18 billion in TVL.