Stacks Bond 3 Sells Out With Bullish and 21shares Among Its Participants

Bond 3 of Bitcoin staking with Stacks sold out in November 2026, following the Genesis Bond in September and Bond 2 in October, with Bullish and 21shares among its participants. Both institutions staked BTC on the Bitcoin L1 to earn BTC with Stacks. Bond 4 opens Dec. ~3.

Bitcoin staking with Stacks is how BTC holders earn BTC: participants timelock BTC on the Bitcoin L1, pair it with a fractional amount of STX on Stacks for a fixed term, and earn BTC paid by Stacks miners.

Who Took Part in Bond 3

21shares, which oversees more than $6.5 billion in assets under management across over 60 crypto ETPs globally, returned for Bond 3 after taking part in the Genesis Bond in September and Bond 2 in October. 

Bullish (NYSE: BLSH) staked BTC from its corporate treasury. Bullish holds 22,000 BTC and ranks among the ten largest publicly traded holders of Bitcoin, according to CoinMarketCap, making it the first company in that group to earn BTC with Stacks. Bullish also operates the only NYSE-listed crypto exchange, a top-three venue worldwide for BTC and ETH spot volume according to CoinDesk Data.

Individual holders also took part in Bond 3 through pooled Bitcoin staking, including via the Xverse pool.

Bullish staked from BitGo qualified custody, using the Bitcoin staking infrastructure BitGo announced on November 3, 2026.

Why Bond 3 Matters

Bond 3 brings together the two kinds of institutional demand Bitcoin staking needs: an ETP issuer running regulated crypto products, and a public company staking from its own balance sheet. Public companies hold more than 1.3 million BTC, over 6% of total supply, according to CoinMarketCap, and most of that Bitcoin earns nothing while it sits on balance sheets.

Institutional participants can stake within the custody arrangements they already use, and the BTC stays on the Bitcoin L1 for the full term. That sets a reference point for other asset managers and treasury holders weighing the same move ahead of Bond 4.

How Bitcoin Staking Works in Bond 3

Bitcoin staking pairs BTC with STX, the native asset of Stacks, which gives Bitcoin the capacity to earn. The yield comes from Stacks miners, who spend BTC to mine Stacks blocks and earn STX, and that BTC is distributed to participants. The table below sets out the terms of Bond 3.

How to Take Part in Bond 4

Bond 4 opens Dec. ~3, and both institutions and individual holders can take part.

• Institutions can register at stacks.co/institutional-bitcoin-staking, including those staking from qualified custody at BitGo.
• Individual holders can join through pooled Bitcoin staking at stacks.co/bitcoin-staking.

Thanks go to the teams at 21shares, Bullish, BitGo and Xverse, and to the core contributors across Stacks who made Bond 3 possible.

Stacks is where Bitcoin earns.

Learn more

• Genesis Bond announcement
• BitGo announcement
• Bitcoin staking whitepaper