Cardano is expanding its DeFi reach by launching Cardinal, a protocol that brings Bitcoin into its ecosystem.
The initiative offers BTC holders new onchain opportunities while pushing Cardano toward greater cross-chain integration.
Charles Hoskinson, Cardano’s founder, shared the announcement on June 9. He reshared a post from Roman Pellerin, CTO at Input Output Global (IOG), the core development team behind Cardano.
First Bitcoin Ordinal Already Bridged
Developers have already wrapped and unwrapped a Bitcoin ordinal across the Bitcoin and ADA mainnets. This marks a critical technical milestone in enabling seamless interaction between the two networks.
Despite this progress, Pellerin clarified that Cardinal remains in its early phase. “The protocol isn’t ready for production yet,” he noted. “We expect improvements before releasing version 1.0.”
Safer Onchain Access for BTC Holders
Cardinal gives Bitcoin users a direct link to Cardano’s DeFi infrastructure. This could support new decentralized apps and use cases like lending, staking, or yield strategies backed by BTC.
With Cardinal, Cardano makes its most focused push yet to onboard Bitcoin liquidity. The network is actively working to reduce barriers between major blockchains and unlock cross-chain capital flows.
Developers plan to refine the protocol further before its full release. Updates on version 1.0 are expected soon.
Kosta Gushterov
Reporter at Coindoo
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Source: https://coindoo.com/cardano-launches-cardinal-protocol-to-bridge-bitcoin-defi/