Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson recently reacted to a Bitcoin conference demo in Las Vegas that showed the emergence of Bitcoin DeFi powered by Cardano technology.
The demo showcased Lace Wallet’s ability to let users swap native Bitcoin directly for Minswap tokens on Cardano within the same interface.
This demonstration signals new possibilities for Bitcoin holders to engage with decentralized finance on Cardano without leaving their wallets. Reacting to the demo, Hoskinson remarked, “Welcome to the age of Bitcoin DeFi, brought to you by Cardano.”
Welcome to the age of Bitcoin DeFi brought to you by Cardano https://t.co/HplIBLK2bY
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) May 27, 2025
Seamless Bitcoin to Cardano Token Swaps
The demo illustrated a user opening the Minswap decentralized application (DApp) inside Lace Wallet, authorizing it, and completing a BTC-to-Minswap token swap with a few clicks.
Notably, transaction fees were paid in Bitcoin via a Babel fees system managed by Fluid Tokens, which suggests a trust-minimized bridging or fee abstraction mechanism. This process allows Bitcoin holders to participate in Cardano DeFi while maintaining control over their assets.
This innovation represents one of the earliest practical examples of direct interaction between Bitcoin and Cardano DeFi from within a single wallet. The demonstration promotes increased interoperability, giving Bitcoin users access to lending, swapping, and trading functionalities across chains.
Cardano and Bitcoin Partnership Advances
Further advancing this collaboration, Input Output Global (IOG) CTO Romain Pellerin announced that the Cardinal protocol will soon enable USDC on Bitcoin to be brought into the Cardano ecosystem.
This allows stablecoins to be utilized within Cardano smart contracts while ensuring compliant confidentiality through the Midnight privacy protocol. Cardinal, designed for Bitcoin Cardano UTXO wrapping and Ordinals support, is nearing production readiness.
With Cardinal protocol we will be able to bring @USDC to #Cardano, leverage it in smart-contracts as well as providing it with compliant confidentiality through @MidnightNtwrk 🖖
Bitcoin 🐦🔥Cardano = Bitcoin DeFi 🚀 https://t.co/qjjO6Ma7HA pic.twitter.com/sNJEHYCzGv
— Romain Pellerin🇫🇷🇺🇸 (@rom1_pellerin) May 27, 2025
Recall, earlier in May, market analyst Dan Gambardello pointed to Cardano as the blockchain poised to unlock a secure framework for Bitcoin DeFi. This matches the ongoing partnership between Cardano’s EMURGO and BitcoinOS that started last year. Their collaboration focuses on enabling smart contract functionality for Bitcoin developers by leveraging Cardano’s network and Bitcoin’s liquidity.
XRP Integration Planned for Lace Wallet
In addition to Bitcoin support, Cardano plans to integrate XRP into Lace Wallet. Charles Hoskinson confirmed this during a recent AMA session, revealing that collaboration with Ripple’s team is progressing well. The integration will enable users to store, send, and receive XRP through Lace Wallet.
Lace launched on Cardano’s mainnet in April 2023, initially supporting only native Cardano assets like ADA. Since then, it has expanded to include Bitcoin support. Adding XRP support further develops Lace as a multi-chain wallet, though no specific timeline for this integration was provided.
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