Stackers,
We’re getting close to locking in an updated Stacks roadmap — huge thanks to everyone who’s shared input along the way. This post is a first pass at summarizing the key priorities that came up repeatedly and seem to have broad alignment across the community.
It reflects feedback from forum threads, community calls, X posts, and a lot of one-on-one convos with builders. It’s not final, think of this as a last call to weigh in. If there’s anything important missing, now’s the time to flag it.
Please note that for now, timelines are not discussed. The goal here is alignment on what matters most. Core devs will scope and add timelines once there’s agreement on direction. Also, items aren’t ranked by importance. This is a collection of themes and needs, not a stack-ranked list (yet). Once we’ve had a chance to process final feedback, we’ll move toward publishing the updated roadmap.
Technical Roadmap Priorities
These are the core protocol-level priorities and changes that will define how performant, decentralized, and scalable the Stacks L2 is.
sBTC Withdrawal Functionality (nearing completion)
The ability to withdraw BTC from sBTC is the most urgent unlock for downstream integrations, listings, and trust. This feature is in progress and prioritized.
Miner Transaction Replay on Bitcoin Reorg (nearing completion)
Builders requested adding a feature to the default Miner binary to have the miner replay transactions that were orphaned by a Bitcoin reorg to be included within the next tenure. This replay feature is already in development.
Interoperability & Cross-Chain Liquidity (in progress)
Interoperability is key for sBTC to improve liquidity. Based on inbound demand, core developers are researching the best ways to bring sBTC to Solana, Aptos, and other ecosystems, making Bitcoin natively usable across chains.
This is critical for adoption and long-term usage, and will likely be something focus is allocated to, starting with:
- Bringing sBTC to Solana: Video of Muneeb Ali announcing this during Solana Breakpoint.
- sBTC to Aptos: Decrypt shares announcement.
- Next: multiple conversations are ongoing to decide the next ecosystem that will integrate sBTC.
Clarity WASM (in progress)
Core developers are exploring a new version of Clarity, compiling to WASM, aiming to remove technical debt and lay the groundwork for future improvements. This unlocks potential gains in:
- Increased transaction throughput
- Improved smart contract efficiency
- Better app performance
Crucially, this is also a first step toward supporting additional runtimes. By compiling to WASM, it opens the door for developers familiar with Rust and other WASM-compatible languages to more easily onboard to Stacks—benefiting from local testing, familiar tooling, and smoother integration with existing Rust-based workflows.
WASM seems like the natural next fit - Jake Blockchain
Trustless, Decentralized sBTC (future work)
The next phase of sBTC emphasizes self-custody and trustless redemption, improving the sBTC protocol based on the core principles:
- Users always control their BTC and can unilaterally reclaim it without relying on third parties.
- sBTC is always redeemable for BTC, enforced by Bitcoin scripts.
- All sBTC is fungible, enabling smooth DeFi interactions and liquidity across the network.
Additionally, we are actively working on ways to improve the sBTC user experience, including an over-haul of the sBTC bridge app, and supporting sBTC for transaction fees on the Stacks network. This removes friction for users while a swap for STX is performed under the hood.
“Stacks exists to provide the most trustless and decentralized version of programmable Bitcoin, while ensuring great UX for decentralized finance.” – Alex Miller
Speed & Throughput (future work)
The demand for fast, consistent transactions is clear, especially for DeFi builders who need reliable execution to support seamless user experiences. Users expect snappy UX, and builders want confidence that their app can scale with their growth.
What we’re aiming for:
- Short-term: Achieve consistent <10s transaction times through ongoing network optimizations, block replication between stackers, and read/write constraints.
- Long-term: Active R&D toward further performance increases based on target TPS metrics.
Community members have been vocal:
“TPS is not a current blocker, but speed and TPS capacity are both factors that people consider when they choose what they build on.” – Dylan Floyd
“UI/UX needs to feel instant. That’s what users expect.” – Hero Gamer
Ecosystem & Business Development Roadmap
These are the go-to-market, liquidity, and ecosystem integration efforts that help Stacks scale beyond our current ecosystem, and reach users where they are.
Liquidity Growth (in progress)
More capital, more depth, more usable DeFi.
Efforts include:
- Growing sBTC TVL to 6K+ in the short-term, to be the leading Bitcoin L2 with fully expressive smart contracts.
- $30M+ deployed into strategic liquidity pools.
- Active market-making across DEXs
- Incentives for builders and users
This work is ongoing. The BD working group has worked hard in securing new institutional sBTC investors deploying their Bitcoin into sBTC DeFi apps. sBTC Cap-2 filled up in less than a day, and hundreds of BTC are now deployed in Stacks’ DeFi ecosystem thanks to sBTC.
“We need to show that real BTC liquidity lives on Stacks.” – Snazzy
“Rapidly expand the sBTC supply.” – MikeSypher
“Every DeFi founder is asking for deeper liquidity.” – Everyone, basically
Tier-1 Stablecoin (in progress)
The BD working group is working to bring a tier one stablecoin integration to Stacks, unlocking:
- Easier user onboarding
- Better trading pairs
- New use cases across DeFi apps
Custody providers are also in motion, with DeFi-first custody providers as the top priority.
“I think we need to have a stablecoin which can be withdrawn from CEXes. This stablecoin (either USDT or USDC, or both.” – *Bluesky
”The stablecoin backed by real assets support should be a primary focus.” – KristianBalaj
Bridge Integrations (in progress)
Interoperability matters. Stacks will integrate with:
- Axelar (Q2 launch)
- Other tier-1 bridges (in development)
Stacks apps should connect easily to users across crypto without friction.
“Additionally, having an official bridge for USDC and USDT is crucial for credibility.” – Tuor
sBTC (& SIP-010) Listings (in progress)
With withdrawal functionality going live, centralized exchanges can list sBTC (and in turn SIP-010 tokens). Listing work has long been underway and will be unblocked when the sBTC system is uncapped and withdrawals are live. Listings are essential for:
- Expanding Bitcoin liquidity
- Driving yield opportunities
- Increasing sBTC and STX accessibility
- Increased accessibility for Stacks-based assets, TGEs
“There should be a concerted effort to implement across CEX’s” – Snazzy
sBTC Yield Mechanisms (In progress)
As TVL grows, sBTC needs compelling native yield. Work is underway to expand on-chain yield opportunities
Protocol-Level Yield
- Explore native yield models tied to protocol usage (e.g. dual-staking).
- Ensure early adopters can earn BTC-denominated rewards without relying solely on external apps.
Boosted Yield via DeFi Apps
- Set up bonus yield programs to incentivize DeFi apps that integrate sBTC (e.g. LP farming, lending rewards).
- Work with builders to coordinate shared incentive structures and user onboarding.
“In order to maintain TVL short term and increase user and institutional adoption, we need to find a long term solution for continuous yield that’s sustainable” – TheAdvisor.btc
Dual-Stacking (future work)
Research into dual staking and restaking models that allow sBTC holders and BTC liquidity providers to earn additional protocol-level rewards by contributing to network security or utility.
- Dual-stacking is designed to bring more Bitcoin capital onchain, align STX with protocol growth, and create a sustainable incentive model for Bitcoin DeFi.
- Early concepts explore aligning incentives across sBTC holders, liquidity providers, and protocol participants.
Goal: Create a sustainable mechanism for continuous yield that strengthens security and long-term participation.
Final Feedback Requested
This roadmap reflects months of research, community calls, forum discussions, and 1:1 builder convos — but before we finalize, we want to make sure nothing critical is missing.
Where you come in:
- Is there anything we overlooked?
- Is the community prioritizing the wrong things?
- Did something important not make the cut?
Ask: leave a comment beneath this post to share what you think is missing right not. But before you do, please note that for smaller features, such as broader BNS V2 adoption, Clarity libraries, and better mining support, the SIP (Stacks Improvement Proposal) process is a better way to highlight this and achieve broader community consensus.
Huge shout out to @RickSebastiaan and @cuevasm for contributing to this update!