Stacks 90-Day DeFi Incentive Program Announced with Zest and Bitflow

At Block 966,350, expected September 10, Stacks begins distributing 1 BTC per month through a 90-day incentive program with Zest and Bitflow. The program pays rewards in Bitcoin, more than $180,000 at current prices, and directs them at two activities: borrowing USDCx against sBTC and STX collateral, and providing liquidity in the core USDCx trading pairs.

The design follows a simple principle: incentives should target key primitives that make the full Stacks ecosystem stronger. Bitcoin on Stacks earns rewards in this program by backing loans and powering markets, turning idle Bitcoin into productive capital. More details on reward distribution and verification follow closer to the launch date. Make sure to follow the official Zest and Bitflow channels for more information.

Borrow USDCx on Zest

Zest distributes 0.50 BTC per month across USDCx debt positions backed by sBTC or STX collateral. Positions qualify by maintaining a time-weighted loan-to-value ratio of at least 20%, and rewards are distributed pro rata across all qualifying debt. Stacks already offers some of the lowest BTC-collateralized borrow rates in onchain DeFi, so the incentive stacks on top of borrowing that is cheap to begin with.

The full monthly allocation is distributed regardless of participation, which means effective rates run highest in the early weeks.

Provide liquidity on Bitflow

Bitflow distributes 0.50 BTC per month across activity and deployment for its two core USDCx pools: sBTC/USDCx and STX/USDCx. Rewards flow to active, in-range liquidity that generates trading fees, and potential other user activity. Deep liquidity and activity in these pools is what makes borrowed USDCx usable, letting borrowers trade, deploy, and exit efficiently.

The same dynamic applies here: full allocations are distributed each month, so liquidity providers entering early earn the highest effective rates as the pools build toward target depth.

How rewards work

Partners distribute rewards monthly, pro rata across eligible positions, with results verified independently against daily onchain snapshots. Full eligibility rules, including excluded position types, will be published by Zest and Bitflow ahead of September 10. The program runs for 90 days from September 10.

Beyond the first 90 days

This program is the first phase of a longer arc. The Endowment will use participation data from these three months to shape a long-term DeFi incentive framework, directing future allocations toward the activities that prove most productive for the ecosystem. Early participants benefit twice: effective rates run highest while pools build toward target depth, and the positions rewarded today are the ones the next phase will be designed around.

A handoff on September 10

The program starts at Block 966,350 and is currently expected to begin on September 10, the day the Bitcoin staking pilot product, Dual Stacking, concludes and Bitcoin Staking opens its Genesis bond. The pilot proved demand for BTC yield on Stacks and hands off to two successors: Bitcoin Staking, which pays yield at the consensus level, and this program, which puts Bitcoin capital to work across the app layer. Details on the wind-down are here.

Bitcoin on Stacks now has three ways to grow: earning yield at the consensus level, deploying liquid staked Bitcoin into DeFi, and working as productive capital across Bitcoin-native finance. This program funds the third.