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Stacks DeFi Show #99
Recorded: Feb. 17, 2026 Duration: 0:20:15Space Recording
Short Summary
In a recent discussion, key updates from the Stacks DeFi ecosystem were shared, including the upcoming launch of Zest Protocol V2, which promises attractive yield opportunities. Despite some setbacks in the Stacking DAO, the community is witnessing growth in BTC inflows and innovative trends like AI integration, showcasing resilience and forward momentum in the crypto space.
Full Transcription
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, Tycho, can you hear me?
Just checking who is in or not.
I guess you cannot hear me yet.
Sorry guys, as usual, X knows how to deliver spaces. So let's wait a few minutes for Taco to join.
Yo everyone just testing. You can hear me if I can hear you?
Yes, we can.
Okay, now I can also hear you. I think previously I couldn't hear
I couldn't hear anyone else speak.
So, no, good.
We made it.
We always need that little buffer to get everything working and get everyone up here.
But, yeah, episode 99 of the Stacks DeFi show.
That's 99 shows getting close to the number 100.
And, yeah, this is just a place where we come together to, you know, chat all things Stacks
DeFi and, you know, the latest updates from across the ecosystem and so on.
The latest shows have been a bit, you know, more brief as they have been in these during
the more bear market conditions to just share, latest updates of what everyone has been working on and what we can expect.
So, yeah, so I think that was what we will cover today.
And, yeah, just quite excited to dive into it.
But, yeah, I guess without further ado,
the only thing that the friends at Stacks always ask us to mention
is that everything that we share is obviously for informational purposes only
and should not be considered financial advice.
But having said that, I think we can do some quick intros
for people who might be joining new here or who are listening to the recording.
So yeah, I'm Tycho, co-founder of Zest Protocol,
the largest DeFi protocol on stacks by TVL
and the main place where people come to borrow
and earn yield on their assets.
And yeah, also, you know, contributed to stacking now
and head of Bitcoin Strategy, a treasury and emerging Bitcoin treasury company in Europe.
But yeah, the advisor you want to go next?
Sure. As always, I'm also going to keep it brief, but I'm the advisor at BTC.
For those of you that don't know me, uh, say I've, I actively create
Bitcoin defined that to scount in with a focus on stocks.
And I also say, uh, work in the same marketing activities, let's put it
like that in the stacks ecosystem.
And we've stuck in the house, and the foundation, uh, the
staff foundation and that's it.
Yeah, I'm just quickly writing Jacob from Hermitica.
So we'll try to organize something for the Zest V2 launch.
But, I'm starting, okay.
starting okay um yeah but um but yeah i guess that that sort of you know really segues into
it of course with zest protocol we uh we have the v2 coming up um very shortly and um i mean it's
ready it's just a question of like whether stacks uh can move into liquidity, as we've kind of been talking about every week.
So, you know, just waiting for that part to come through when it comes to the Stacks endowment and their relationships with the LPs who are providing the first stablecoin liquidity on Zest protocol.
But there is already the early access for the V2.
With today, let me just check, I think more than 3 million of USDC is borrowable.
Yeah, 3.2 million of USDCX is borrowable at the criminally low rate of 0.4%,
while your BTC on Zest Protocol is currently earning 3.8%.
So that's a great spread there and you really get that getting paid to borrow.
But yeah, so that's the latest on the Zest Protocol v2.
So there's still some assets coming in. And yeah, when those are there,
then we would love to open it up to everyone, right?
To come in and enjoy these yields.
But if you want access already, we have something for you.
I'll just pin it up here,
which is essentially the early access request method by which you can get early
access to ZES Protocol v2 already and borrow those tables very cheaply.
So if you want to have a look, head over there and then we'll get you that early access.
So that's the main updates from the Zest protocol side.
And then I think also important to mention on the stacking DAO side
that there was a small hiccup in the extension of the stacking cycle.
You know, Philip is currently asleep, otherwise he could have been here too,
to explain what happened.
But I just pinned up the tweet there from StackingDAO that I quit staking protocol on stacks. And yeah, long story short, the stacking down STX was blocked from stacking in the coming stacking cycle, which is a very unfortunate event.
And yeah, I think just one of those things which make it difficult to build on stacks sometimes, right?
The ecosystem is not as mature and staking doesn't work in the same way as on Ethereum and Solana
where you can just keep things steady, but there are a lot of quirky ways in which it works,
which Xverse and all the others have dealt with.
And yeah, so we hope that Stacks Labs has the proof of transfer upgrade ready soon
that basically avoids this from happening in the future.
And they know that we're available to help to get it shipped. And I just hope that that's
going to be there soon. So those I think are the main SES protocol and Stacking.DAO updates.
But yeah, the advisor, any other things you've seen
across the ecosystem?
Of course, you're quite involved with the Bitflow testing too
and some stuff there.
So yeah, feel free to share what you've seen.
Rather than the Bitflow maybe update,
I think it's interesting that the like stocks has been posting about the
messari crypto uh state of stocks let's say latest uh article oh yeah maybe to pin that up up there
but um yeah yeah yeah i haven't read it yet so would be curious for us for the rundown as well
yeah this is exactly because for for example you mentioned also Zest
and how for example
despite the fact that there's been
a downturn in prices
Zest has been able to grow
in terms of PTC inflows
and SDX inflows
so I think it's a great
statistic
showing that Zest
has been able to grow in terms of inflow despite
the price downturn is a great uh great achievement and trying to find here it is
let's see if i can i'm not sure how to share to space here is it i share the the update there's a student link yeah so basically uh you can see like the defi tvl in terms of stx has
been growing the average stx stock has been growing so like overall let's say really really on this kind of metrics for stocks.
And the other thing also that maybe it's worth talking
is lately, still the stocks page,
let me know like posting about the AI agents
having launching capabilities on stocks.
And I think like everybody here in the crowd
is probably seeing all about AI agents,
all they can do.
And I think it's clear that in the coming months and years,
AI agents will be able to do so much journey for human.
So like humans, they cannot automate a lot of stuff.
But this also means like big things for for crypto
because if you have an agent that can trade for you
they can know like deploy
in DeFi for you
it really simplifies the life
for many investors
and it's really cool to see like
AIBTC
Satoshi AI and all these
products that are really alive on
on stocks being able to play around with that.
So this is definitely a narrative that it's worth also keeping an eye on.
Then for the rest, I think as usual,
also like Hermetica, like Jacob has done a post
teasing the fact that the HPTC contracts have been deployed.
So really, like even there's been a liquidity increase in
USDCH
so definitely
something is brewing there.
Also, Bitflow
has been quite open about their progresses
so definitely
the DeFi ecosystem
is gearing up to
some
big updates
as you mentioned, even SV2 is
right around the corner
it's worth keeping
an eye on Twitter
in these days I would say
yeah, good good stuff there and I on Twitter in these days, I would say.
Yeah, no good. Good stuff there.
And yeah, I mean, we've seen a little, right?
Like, you know, the Claude code stuff
and then people, you know, building with OpenClaw
and, you know, the entire mall part and whatnot.
So the entire space has been heating up, uh, a lot.
And there are of course, interesting projects on, uh, on stacks, right. With Satoshi being like the
leading, uh, AI token on stacks, but then also some of these other projects more like working
on, uh, on open source tools for, you know, using stacks and AI and so on. But, uh, but yeah,
I think the broad thesis is
that we'll probably look back on this whole crypto,
all these crypto times as,
we'll look back on it with the smile on our faces
that we were actually interacting
with protocols ourselves manually,
and that we were moving assets across computers
by pressing buttons on the UI instead
of having agents do it, right? Which I think is, yeah, a future that's not very far away.
So also on Stacks, there's very interesting experiments that are being done there. And
yeah, things you definitely want to be checking out, and especially, yeah, some things will
already be coming also from
the Satoshi AI side in terms of new open source tools and potentially the long awaited public
release, right, of that, of the Stacks AI terminal.
But yeah, so I guess those are some updates from across the ecosystem.
I'm sure if anyone wants to come up and chat. I can't see anyone
because I'm not a co-host, unfortunately, because there's some bugs with trying to join the space
as a co-host. But in case anyone wants to come up, maybe the Stacks handle can let them.
But yeah, in the meantime, the Advisor, any other things you've been seeing or any other things you think we should
definitely not forget to cover before more people
come up here? No I think we covered it all
I know for instance that if Denver is
soon, it's going to happen soon and Stagg is going to be there, which is always a good opportunity to like meet new builders that might be interested in Bitcoin. But in terms of big news,
I would say that's it for now. That's it. Yeah. Cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Then
Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.
Then, yeah, I think no one is coming up.
We can maybe call it a wrap for today.
Unless someone is, let's see if Rick is behind it or, yeah, I don't see any messages there.
So, yeah, I guess we can slowly start wrapping up.
Do you advise any hooks, any final things you think people should check out before signing off?
Sure, as usual, my advice is to keep, you know,
monitoring and looking at this Stacking Down and Zest Twitter page.
So if you don't follow it yet, follow it.
Because there is where all the main announcements are made about, you know,
protocol updates, memes, whatever, like anything that's related to the protocols
is going to be shared there.
And two, if you want to know to have more fun,
like meet new people, play some activities,
join StackinAusiness Discord where GPSC is going to be there
to greet you and help you around the StackSex ecosystem.
Yeah, awesome.
And yeah, I guess as always, you know,
don't forget to earn yield on your SBTC on Zest Protocol, 3.8% yield right there.
BTC on BTC, one of the highest yields on BTC in the entire ecosystem.
So yeah, definitely keep an eye out for that.
So yeah, definitely keep an eye out for that.
And yeah, of course, make sure to stack your STX on stacking DAO
for that sweet proof of transfer yield.
But yeah, and we're going to be back next week, I guess, for episode 100.
Same time, same space, and yeah, same handle Stacks will be hosting
and we can hopefully, the liquidity will have been moved
through the Stacks endowment and SES Protocol V2
can go live and we're ready to go.
But yeah, the best way to stay up to date on that
is to follow and SES Protocol on X here
and then yeah, we can take things from there.
Perfect. Awesome. Thanks everyone for joining. I see
earlier faces, I'm not sure if you're requesting to join. But yeah, it's great to see you guys.
On 300, GPSC, Martin, of course the biggest Stax DeFi power user. And yeah, and some new folks as well,
like Cryptomare, .BTC,
who haven't seen in a while in these spaces.
And Nozle Strategy and ChatSTX.
Yeah, great stuff, guys.
We'll be back next week.
And then, yeah, looking forward to talk more then.
Bye, guys.
Bye-bye. Thank you.
Host
stacks.btc
from
Stacks Staking
