Portal DeFi Announces Support for Stacks and sBTC on Cross-Chain DEX
by Stacks Foundation team on April 9, 2024
Portal DeFi, known for enabling trust-minimized, bridgeless cross-chain exchanges across blockchain networks, has announced plans to integrate Stacks and, upon its launch, will bring sBTC to the Portal DEX Network, the first native liquidity hub for assets built on Bitcoin layers and other chains.
Stacks x Portal DeFi Integration
Portal DeFi is a premier liquidity hub for DeFi built on Bitcoin, committed to providing access for layered assets built on Bitcoin. An integration with Stacks, the leading layer 2 solution for Bitcoin, will reinforce Portal’s mission to enable fast and low-cost economic activity across chains – without third parties.

Here’s a quick summary of what this integration will mean for users:
  • Portal Swap SDK enables Layer 2 Atomic Swaps, a technology for trading native BTC against Layer 2 assets like sBTC and other assets issued on Layer 2 chains
  • With Portal DEX, users have access to permissionless, decentralized swaps between two chains without costly bridging or risk of custody.
  • Building a DEX on Layer 1 Bitcoin is expensive and slow, so Layer 2s are growing in popularity, with Stacks being the oldest and largest. sBTC is the bridged BTC asset on Stacks.
  • With this integration, Stacks users will be able to swap their sBTC for native BTC or for native tokens on other chains like ETH, USDT and more in a fast, non-custodial, and decentralized way – without needing to un-bridge their sBTC.
  • Stacks’ infrastructure will incorporate Portal Swap SDK for native swapping to occur within Foundation-led apps/trading interfaces.
  • The Stacks Foundation will support liquidity pools of trading pairs for sBTC.
Portal DeFi to Support sBTC Upon Launch
The sBTC release, and support in the Portal DEX Network, is set to take place in the months following the Nakamoto rollout this year. sBTC is a 1:1 Bitcon-backed asset on the Stacks layer that enables smooth movement of BTC from the L1 to the L2 and back while remaining decentralized. sBTC functionality ultimately unleashes BTC as a fully programmable, productive asset. And unlike the issuer behind WBTC (Wrapped Bitcoin), which today holds $10 Billion of Bitcoin in a central custodial vault, Stacks’ decentralized sBTC utilizes open and distributed signing architecture.


Once sBTC is live, it will be incorporated into Portal DEX Network, which will enable sBTC’s cross-chain trading capabilities. With this integration, users can execute smooth one-click trades of sBTC against native assets on other chains without bridging. This expanded accessibility to sBTC beyond the Stacks ecosystem will grant users a new level of flexibility in managing their digital assets.