Bitlayer Secures 31.5% of Bitcoin Hashrate to Bring Smart Contracts to BTC

Bitlayer, a project designed to bring smart contract capabilities to Bitcoin, has announced a major milestone: mining pools controlling 31.5% of Bitcoin’s total network hashrate are now supporting its system.

This development is expected to strengthen the operational foundation of Bitlayer’s smart contract framework, ensuring that its transactions can be processed and validated on the Bitcoin blockchain.

What Is Bitlayer and BitVM?

Bitlayer is an implementation of BitVM (Bitcoin Virtual Machine) — a system first proposed by developer Robin Linus in 2023. BitVM allows for complex smart contracts to be deployed on Bitcoin without altering the base protocol.

The framework works by verifying complex computations onchain while executing them offchain, using mechanisms similar to optimistic rollups — a popular solution in Ethereum’s scaling ecosystem. This approach opens the door for Bitcoin to interact with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and layer-2 networks, expanding its utility far beyond simple peer-to-peer transfers.

Who’s Backing Bitlayer?

Major Bitcoin mining pools are backing the project, including:

• Antpool (17.2% of Bitcoin’s hashrate)

• F2Pool (8.2%)

• Spiderpool (6.1%)

Together, these pools control over 31% of the network’s total hashrate — meaning roughly one in every three Bitcoin blocks will potentially include and validate Bitlayer’s smart contract transactions.

Andy Chow, CEO of Antpool, expressed strong support for the initiative, saying:

“Antpool has become the bridge operator for Bitlayer to support Bitcoin innovation and protect miners’ interests.”

He also emphasized the importance of expanding Bitcoin’s use cases, noting that increased network activity can generate more transaction fees, which are crucial for miners’ sustainability, especially as block rewards diminish over time.

Why Mining Pool Support Matters

Mining pools play a critical role in the success of BitVM and Bitlayer because they control what types of transactions and scripts are included in Bitcoin blocks. For BitVM to work, miners need to include custom Taproot-based transactions that encode interactive verification logic.

Bitcoin hashrate distribution between mining pools. Source: Hash Rate Index

Without mining pool participation, these non-standard or computationally intensive transactions would simply be ignored — rendering the system nonfunctional.

With 31.5% hashrate backing, Bitlayer can now:

• Begin testing and prototyping early-stage smart contract applications.

• Build systems under the assumption that, despite some latency, BitVM transactions will be processed with reasonable regularity.

• Lay the groundwork for more robust, future deployments.

While this level of support may not yet enable full-scale production rollouts, it’s considered sufficient for early development phases.

What’s Next?

A Bitlayer representative confirmed that the team has developed a multi-layered contingency plan in case mining pool support fluctuates or policy changes occur at the Bitcoin Core level. This includes efforts to onboard additional mining pools to further secure the protocol’s long-term viability.

As more mining pools join the initiative, the percentage of hashrate supporting BitVM will rise, paving the way for more advanced and reliable smart contract deployments on Bitcoin.

Why It Matters

For years, Bitcoin has been criticized for its lack of programmability compared to Ethereum and other smart contract platforms. If Bitlayer and BitVM prove successful, they could radically transform Bitcoin’s ecosystem — enabling decentralized applications (dApps), financial products, and new types of onchain services, all without compromising the blockchain’s core principles or requiring protocol changes.

This marks an exciting step in Bitcoin’s evolution from a “digital gold” store of value into a more versatile, programmable financial layer.