Latest news with #Runes
Business Insider
07-08-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Maestro Releases the ‘State of BitcoinFi' Report: A Clear Shift from Scaling Infrastructure to Usable BitcoinFi Products
Maestro, the leading BitcoinFi infrastructure provider, has released the 'State of BitcoinFi,' the industry's most comprehensive ecosystem-wide report on Bitcoin financial applications, infrastructure, and the ongoing expansion of Bitcoin's utility from storing value to powering global finance's transition to on-chain rails. The State of BitcoinFi research report presents data-driven protocol performance, market analysis, institutional outlooks, and the state of venture funding into the BitcoinFi ecosystem. It reveals that staking and lending have emerged as the primary areas where BitcoinFi is achieving product-market fit. Maestro expects BitcoinFi volumes to surge as a growing number of institutions add Bitcoin to their balance sheets and custodians activate idle BTC searching for yield and utility. 'We're witnessing the convergence of TradFi and DeFi into a Bitcoin‑denominated capital market,' said Marvin Bertin, Co‑Founder and CEO of Maestro. 'For the first time since 2009, the critical pieces for on‑chain financial apps on Bitcoin are in place, spanning exchanges, lending, and stablecoins. Bitcoin is evolving from a static reserve asset into a dynamic, productive financial network.' Key insights: Staking and lending: With over ₿68.5K of TVL ($7.39 billion), staking has become the most widely adopted application in BitcoinFi. An additional $3.32 billion worth of BTC is locked in restaking, meaning BitcoinFi now secures over $10 billion in value through yield-generating protocols. While Babylon ($4.79B) leads in scale, Solv, Lombard, and CoreDAO are pushing the frontier with liquid staking tokens (LSTs), restaking strategies, and dual-token security models. Liquidium has become an early leader in Bitcoin-native lending with over $500M in volume. Programmability layers: Bitcoin L2s and scaling layers have $5.52B (52k BTC) in TVL, signalling real developer and user demand driven by BTC-native smart contracts, yield, and asset issuance while preserving self-custody and Bitcoin settlement guarantees. Stacks led all layers in growth, adding ~2,000 BTC and more than doubling its TVL in Q2. Sidechains still hold the most BTC in BitcoinFi, but the architecture is rapidly diversifying, with rollups and execution layers looking promising. Metaprotocols: Runes, Ordinals, and BRC-20s accounted for 40.6% of all Bitcoin transactions in H1 2025. The BRC-20 daily volume has surged to $128 million. Ordinals, after a pullback in 2024, witnessed a strong recovery with over 80 million inscriptions created by mid-2025, generating 6,940 BTC (approximately $681M) in fees. The Runes minting and trading volume declined sharply by year-end 2024, though the activity rebounded in March and April 2025. Stablecoins: With $860M in TVL (+42.3% QoQ), stablecoins have begun to take hold in the Bitcoin ecosystem, thanks to the maturation of Bitcoin L2s and growing demand for native financial primitives. CDP-based (Collateralized Debt Position) stablecoins like Avalon's USDa ($559M) have found early traction in BitcoinFi. The introduction of high-yield stablecoins, such as Hermetica's 25% APY offering, underscores the demand for income-generating assets within BitcoinFi. Venture funding: After a period of declining investments, BitcoinFi venture funding surged to $175 million across 32 rounds in the first half of 2025. The funding activities are no longer narrowly focused on infrastructure. In H1 2025, 20 out of 32 deals focused on DeFi, custody, or consumer apps. Capital is pivoting toward usability and demand-driven products, while infrastructure bets mature in the background. The BitcoinFi infrastructure tooling has matured quickly across indexers, wallets, explorers, and marketplaces, enabling a strong layer for building consumer and institutional applications. Maestro itself is leading the charge with its BitcoinFi infrastructure platform powering more than 250 applications. Maestro prepared the report in collaboration with BitcoinFi Accelerator. The full report is available here. About Maestro Maestro is the first enterprise-grade BitcoinFi infrastructure provider. Its mission is to accelerate the world's transition to the Bitcoin Economy by delivering a comprehensive, scalable infrastructure stack optimized for on-chain finance. By empowering developers and businesses with robust software tooling, Maestro is setting a new standard for how financial applications are built on Bitcoin, fueling the evolution of a decentralized, blockchain-native financial system.
Business Insider
22-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Maestro Advances Native Ordinals and Runes Indexer on ICP to Power Bitcoin DeFi
Maestro, the leading infrastructure provider for Bitcoin DeFi, has been awarded a grant from the DFINITY Foundation to build an enterprise-grade, native Bitcoin metaprotocol indexer for the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP). The collaboration delivers a high-performance ICP canister capable of providing real-time Ordinals and Runes data within ICP's Bitcoin integration. Since its launch in 2023, ICP's Bitcoin integration has become a leading Bitcoin smart contracts platform through Chain Fusion technology. It powers some of the most successful Bitcoin DeFi applications, including Liquidium, Omnity and Maestro's contribution will further expand these capabilities by enhancing infrastructure for Ordinals and Runes-based apps. Maestro Indexer offers native validation of Bitcoin assets like Ordinals and Runes directly within ICP canisters. The system is designed for reliability, with features such as mempool-awareness for fast responsive times and protection against blockchain reorganizations. This ensures high performance and secure data delivery for any application built on ICP. Liquidium, Bitcoin's largest lending protocol, will be the first to utilize the new indexer. Maestro will power Liquidium's upcoming instant cross-chain loans product built directly on Bitcoin. Users will be able to lock BTC on Bitcoin Layer 1 and borrow USDT on Ethereum without relying on bridges or wrapped tokens. 'I'm thrilled to collaborate with the DFINITY Foundation to extend ICP's Bitcoin integration with secure Runes and Ordinals indexing necessary for financial apps like Liquidium and This partnership further strengthens ICP's lead in the Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem and unlocks new functionality for users,' said Maestro Co-Founder and CEO Marvin Bertin. Maestro's infrastructure is already trusted by more than 1,000 developers and powers 200+ applications. Now, its services will extend to the ICP ecosystem. The indexer will be fully open-sourced, giving developers a powerful, transparent tool for building native Bitcoin applications, from DeFi to gaming. By integrating deeply with Bitcoin's protocol, Maestro's system offers developers on ICP secure and reliable access to Bitcoin data. This unlocks entirely new categories of applications that combine Bitcoin's liquidity with ICP's contract and cross-chain capabilities through Chain Fusion technology. "Maestro's native indexer adds a valuable piece of infrastructure for the growing Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem on the Internet Computer," said Lomesh Dutta, VP of Growth at the DFINITY Foundation. "Now we're able to provide developers with direct, trustless access to Ordinals and Runes data to further enable the massive wave of innovation that relies on Chain Fusion's unique ability to interact with Bitcoin without bridges or intermediaries." The project represents a major step toward scaling Bitcoin-native innovation. With the support of Maestro's technology, ICP continues to position itself at the forefront of the evolving Bitcoin DeFi economy. About Maestro Maestro is the first enterprise-grade infrastructure provider tailor-made for Bitcoin DeFi. Its mission is to accelerate the world's transition to the Bitcoin Economy by delivering a comprehensive, scalable infrastructure stack optimized for on-chain finance. By empowering developers and businesses with robust software tooling, Maestro is setting a new standard for how financial applications are built on Bitcoin, fueling the evolution of a decentralized, blockchain-native financial system. Learn more: About the Internet Computer The Internet Computer (ICP) represents a fully decentralized web3 cloud platform, enabling developers to deploy code directly onto the blockchain without relying on servers or centralized infrastructure. This fast, cost-efficient, and highly scalable protocol redefines the operational paradigm of a decentralized web3 platform. ICP offers the same functionalities as centralized clouds but with economically efficient computation, heightened security, and rapid processing speeds intrinsic to decentralized technology.
Time of India
20-06-2025
- Time of India
Best Relics in Elden Ring Nightreign
Image via: FromSoftware The best way to customize the abilities of your character in Elden Ring is through the relics you choose. Each relic comes with its own set of powers, and having the right ones can take your build from just decent to great. Relics can increase base stats, help with acquiring Runes, or support a particular playstyle. Relics must be chosen in tandem with character attributes and combat strategies. Relics That Boost Base Stats So, if you're running Executor for instance, whose Dexterity is currently S-tier level, relics that boost Dexterity will not only increase your damage, but your attack speed and general action economy, making your character much more dynamic in combat. One particularly interesting artifact here is the Old Pocketwatch, which increases Dexterity directly, letting you attack faster and improve the flow of combat overall. Focus on relics that improve the stats your character excels in to get the most out of your combat performance. Elden Ring Nightreign BEST RELICS & What They Do Make sure to look at your Nightfarer's base stats and arm them with relics that compliment whichever their highest stat ratings are. If a stat is currently at A or S tier, that's a pretty clear indication that a stat-boosting relic will have a big impact. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 4 Live Call Answering Services That Should Help Boost Efficiency - Worth A Peek Learn More Undo Relics to Boost Rune Acquisition As repetitive as Rune farming is, the proper relics make the grind much more fulfilling. Increasing Rune acquisition lets you invest in developing your Nightfarer's power without stressing quite so much about the limited availability of resources. Equip relics that automatically increase Rune gains, and before long, you'll watch your Nightfarer become more powerful and potent without much effort. Any relic that provides passive Rune increases are one's your going to want to focus on, particularly if you're looking to boost your team's progression speed. The New Shop Relics Are Amazing! Elden Ring: Nightreign Relics That Match Your Playstyle It's important to state that not all relics are meant to be stat or acquisition rate boosts. Some are directly designed to increase the potential of certain playstyles to make them more effective. This means characters like Guardian, the tanky shield-bearer, can really take advantage of relics that improve the effectiveness of their Guard Counters or raise enemy aggro. These relics go a long way in making sure your character feels as mighty as a frontline warrior should by maximizing your survivability. If you want to specialize more in controlling the battlefield and bumping damage, you'll want to equip relics that increase your defensive output or aggro control to fully maximize your tank build. These relics do not only improve your individual resilience, but enable you to pitch in more strategically to your team's success. Elden Ring Nightreign - New Boss Update, OP Relics & GUARANTEED Shifting Earths - Easy Adel Guide! Hunt down relics that amplify your physical or magical skills based on what you want to specialize in. For instance, if you go for heavy, fast offenses, select relics to increase combo lengths or give combo finishers. Game On Season 1 kicks off with Sakshi Malik's inspiring story. Watch Episode 1 here
Time of India
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Elden Ring Nightreign Map Icons explained
(Image via Bandai Namco Entertainment) Navigating Elden Ring Nightreign lands requires more than just skills. It demands a strong understanding of its complex map. The myriad of cryptic symbols covering Limveld's landscape signifies some crucial locations/dangers. Knowing what all the icons represent is important to plan the survival route, targeting valuable resources, and managing the encroaching storms. The guide here unlocks the meaning behind all major map markers one would encounter. All Elden Ring Nightreign Map icons Every Location in Elden Ring Nightreign EXPLAINED – Full Limveld Map Guide! Here is the list of all essential map icons in Elden Ring Nightreign and what each of these symbols means for the expedition. Buried Treasure- these marks some hidden chests with valuable and rare loot, quite often requiring the discovery of a beaten path. Castle- signifies the towering citadels that house enemies, powerful bosses, and some significant loot. Be sure to approach it when you are well-prepared. Church- small sanctuaries, where interaction with the altar will give a permanent increase to the Sacred Flask charges—the critical survival upgrade. Evergaol- magical prisons; sealed arenas. Use the Stonesword key to challenge the imprisoned boss to gain substantial XP and rewards. Field Boss- reveals powerful roaming enemies and their locations. It's available from day 2 onwards and offers unique gear drops and high XP. Fort- military outposts that are full of enemies. It often contains the boss and the maps that reveal the nearby treasures and secrets. Great Church- highlights the large and crumbling structures that are usually inhabited by the formidable boss. It also contains the valuable Sacred Seals. Hidden Info Nearby- it signals the points of interest, which, when interacted with, reveals the hidden areas or the points on the world map. Main Encampment- identifies the larger enemy garrisons that are ideal for early Rune farming. It features multiple mini-bosses and a lot of loot. Merchants and Smithing Tables- shows the locations where players can trade for some essential items—like Smithing Stones, and upgrade the weapons. Mission Objective- highlights the active quest targets when applicable. Ruins- mark the ancient surface structures that guard the underground chambers. It's usually home to the elemental-themed bosses, enemies, and the rare loot. Sacred Flask Refills- points where players can replenish the healing charges. Scarab- pinpoints the glowing beetles, which, when they get destroyed, drop the valuable Talismans to enhance their abilities. Site of Grace- denotes the safe havens. Players can fully heal here, recharge the flasks, and spend Runes for leveling up and removing ailments. Sorcerer's Rise- flags the magical towers that are sealed by the puzzles. Solve them all for accessing the tower and claiming the sorcery-related rewards that are inside. Spectral Hawk Tree- shows the launch points. Interact with it to grab the spectral hawk and traverse rapidly right along the predetermined sky paths. Spiritstream- marks the geyser-like vents. Interact to get launched high in the air, enabling the traversal over the cliffs or long distances. Township- indicates some abandoned villages that typically house the Merchant selling some vital supplies. It includes the revival items for the solo players. Tunnel Entrance- signals underground mine access. Explore cautiously for the guaranteed Smithing Stones, but be sure to beware of getting trapped by the storm. Weapon Rack (Sacred Seal/Stave/Bow)- guaranteed drops for some of the specific weapon types. Mastering the visual language can completely transform the overwhelming Elden Ring Nightreign map into a strategic asset. Whether hunting for the Sacred Flask upgrades in Elden Ring Churches or trying to avoid some deadly Field Bosses until you feel strong, mastering the map will ensure you are one step ahead of encroaching darkness. Just keep an eye out on the markers, and your journey through Limveld will definitely be victorious.
CNN
26-02-2025
- Science
- CNN
A mysterious woman may have left her mark on the world's oldest rune stone
Runes, the oldest form of writing in Scandinavia, are the result of what happened when one community met another. Early Scandinavians began trading goods with the Roman army within the first few centuries AD. Experts believe the Roman alphabet may have inspired the Scandinavians to create their own writing system. Evidence of runic writing exists from the Roman Iron Age and the Viking era, but researchers have puzzled for years over exactly when runes originated. The enigmatic, spidery markings have appeared on memorial stones in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, mentioning a powerful Viking queen and even warning of a frigid climate crisis based on past events. Now, researchers have traced a path back in time to the world's oldest recorded rune stone — and it's full of secrets. A long time ago Archaeologists unearthed a large, carved stone in an ancient cremation pit in 2021 at the Svingerud dig site in eastern Norway — and then they found more pieces nearby. When the team recently put the fragments together, some of the inscriptions completed one another. The pieces represent some of the earliest known examples of runic writing, dating back about 2,000 years. The stone may have once marked a single grave but was broken up over time as fragments were repurposed in subsequent burials, according to researchers. Many of the markings are hard to decipher. Yet one appears to be the name of a woman, while another could provide evidence of the earliest known female rune inscriber, who left her mark on the stone. Defying gravity This week, flaming debris from a SpaceX launch vehicle streaked across the skies over Germany, while what may have been a fuel tank landed in Poland. The Falcon 9 rocket helped deliver a routine batch of Starlink satellites to space, but part of the rocket didn't splash down as expected and reentered Earth's atmosphere over Europe in fiery fashion. Meanwhile, part of the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket's nose cone, bearing the signatures of the company's employees, washed up on a Bahamian island near a tourist destination. The incidents highlight the ways that, when it comes to space junk generated by the increasing number of launches, what goes up must come down — and sometimes over populated areas. In other space news, NASA confirmed it may have sidestepped sweeping layoffs that were expected, and lawmakers raised concerns over what the space agency won't say about its interactions with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Fantastic creatures Vividly flamboyant birds-of-paradise display stunning plumage in emerald, lemon, cobalt and ruby hues. But they may also be sending secret color signals that are invisible to the human eye. Scientists discovered that the birds' plumage and body parts glow underneath blue and ultraviolet lights. Certain feathers take on a bright or yellow-green appearance, due to a phenomenon known as biofluorescence. It's possible the birds may be able to use this glowing display as a form of visual signaling, acting like beacons that their counterparts can spot and recognize, with humans none the wiser. Dig this The nearly complete skull of an ancient, leopard-size apex predator has pointed an international team of paleontologists to a previously unknown species of ferocious carnivore called a hyaenodont. 'I think of them as like really beefy wolverines or basically like pitbulls. They have really big heads that were just covered in muscle,' said Dr. Matthew Borths, curator of fossils at the Duke Lemur Center Museum of Natural History at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. The rare, well-preserved skull enabled researchers to recreate what Bastetodon syrtos looked like in real life, including some of its more bizarre features. Why the creatures, who lived through global environmental changes, went extinct about 25 million years ago remains a mystery. Across the universe Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to spy fireworks of light radiating near the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The swirling disk of gas and dust that feeds matter into the black hole, called Sagittarius A*, is responsible for the pyrotechnic display. The telescope's Near-Infrared Camera captured footage of powerful, bright flares of light as well as short flashes, unleashing around the black hole on a regular basis. The observations are revealing more about the feeding frenzy of black holes and how their insatiable appetites can shape entire galaxies. Discoveries Feeling curious? Go down the rabbit hole with these stories. — The entrance to a lone corridor led researchers into a lost ancient Egyptian royal tomb — once located beneath two waterfalls in Egypt's Valley of the Kings — that they say belonged to Pharaoh Thutmose II. — Asteroid 2024 YR4 has earned the title of riskiest space rock ever detected and could hit Earth in 2032. Here's why the impact odds keep changing. — Scientists have cracked the code on a new method that results in the 'perfect' boiled egg — and you can try it out in your kitchen. — A gray seal encounter and a tender moment between a mother humpback whale and her newborn calf are two of the winning images from the 2025 Underwater Photographer of the Year competition.
