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Blockchain Project Interlay Wants its New Platform to Become a ‘One-Stop-Shop for Bitcoin DeFi’
“We've only seen the tip of the iceberg with bitcoin DeFi today,” said Interlay CEO and Co-founder Alexei Zamyatin in an exclusive interview with CoinDesk.
Updated Jul 5, 2023, 2:00 p.m. Published Jul 5, 2023, 2:00 p.m.
Interlay, a decentralized blockchain network, rolled out a new platform on Wednesday that it describes as a “one-stop-shop” for Bitcoin decentralized finance (DeFi).
The platform features a decentralized exchange (DEX) and a lending protocol, both integrated with Interlay’s existing DeFi bridge – a system connecting multiple blockchains – that was launched last year and is powered by the wrapped token InterBTC (iBTC). Wrapped tokens are synthetic (or tokenized) versions of crypto assets that are not native to the blockchains on which they exist.
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Read more: Polkadot Now Has a Decentralized Version of 'Wrapped' Bitcoin
Interlay says its new bitcoin DeFi hub plans to fill the void left by the closure of peer-to-peer bitcoin exchanges like LocalBitcoins and Paxful earlier in the year and the multi-billion dollar flight from two of the world’s largest crypto exchanges – Binance and Coinbase – precipitated by the current U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuits targeting the two centralized platforms.
“LocalBitcoins closed, Paxful had issues,” said Interlay CEO and Co-founder Alexei Zamyatin in an interview with CoinDesk. “We focus on trying to unlock additional functionality for bitcoin and we try to be an alternative to centralized exchanges.”
The 30-year-old computer science PhD graduate describes the new platform as a combination of Uniswap, a popular DEX and Aave and Compound, open-source protocols for liquidity and lending, respectively.
The hub reportedly features not only bitcoin (BTC), but also tether (USDT), polkadot (DOT), and Interlay’s governance token INTR. Liquid staking tokens, or portable tokens that represent staked cryptocurrencies “are expected in Q3” while assets from Ethereum and Cosmos may become available by year’s end, according to the project.
This cornucopia of tokens may irk some Bitcoin purists, but Zamyatin says it’s a necessary step in bringing “Bitcoin to one billion people.”
“Financial freedom means different things to different people,” Zamyatin explained. “For some, it means that they can hedge against fiat by buying bitcoin and just holding it, but not everybody earns and has enough capital to be able to just put something aside and use it as an investment. There's a lot of people globally who see bitcoin as access to a financial system,” he added.
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Exchange Review - March 2025
CoinDesk Data's monthly Exchange Review captures the key developments within the cryptocurrency exchange market. The report includes analyses that relate to exchange volumes, crypto derivatives trading, market segmentation by fees, fiat trading, and more.
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Trading activity softened in March as market uncertainty grew amid escalating tariff tensions between the U.S. and global trading partners. Centralized exchanges recorded their lowest combined trading volume since October, declining 6.24% to $6.79tn. This marked the third consecutive monthly decline across both market segments, with spot trading volume falling 14.1% to $1.98tn and derivatives trading slipping 2.56% to $4.81tn.
- Trading Volumes Decline for Third Consecutive Month: Combined spot and derivatives trading volume on centralized exchanges fell by 6.24% to $6.79tn in March 2025, reaching the lowest level since October. Both spot and derivatives markets recorded their third consecutive monthly decline, falling 14.1% and 2.56% to $1.98tn and $4.81tn respectively.
- Institutional Crypto Trading Volume on CME Falls 23.5%: In March, total derivatives trading volume on the CME exchange fell by 23.5% to $175bn, the lowest monthly volume since October 2024. CME's market share among derivatives exchanges dropped from 4.63% to 3.64%, suggesting declining institutional interest amid current macroeconomic conditions.
- Bybit Spot Market Share Slides in March: Spot trading volume on Bybit fell by 52.1% to $81.1bn in March, coinciding with decreased trading activity following the hack of the exchange's cold wallets in February. Bybit's spot market share dropped from 7.35% to 4.10%, its lowest since July 2023.
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