Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (Derivatives) (STX)

📌 Stacks Monthly Ecosystem Update (Must-listen recording)

◆ Key Highlights

Monthly town hall hosted by Kate, Stacks Labs Content Lead.
Shared updates on Bitcoin staking progress, Treasury Committee results,
and major app updates.

· Presenters: Alex Miller, Rick, Claire, Rena (Endowment),
Tycho (Zest), Diego (Bitflow), Publius (AIBTC)

◆ Bitcoin Staking & SIP Progress (Alex Miller)

· All security reviews completed and modifications incorporated
· Official audit reports from two auditing firms to be released soon
· SIP has virtually reached its final version
· Voting to proceed in July; if passed, PoX-5 will be applied via hard fork by end of July

▸ Important for STX Holders
· All STX lockups will be automatically released during the hard fork
· Re-locking is mandatory
· The first cycle will be an STX-only staking cycle
· In the initial few cycles, Bitcoin bonds will be absent or minimal,
so STX yields are expected to be much higher than usual

▸ Market Perspective
· Crypto market downturn has persisted for the past few months
· Consensus is forming that we are returning to a 4-year cycle
· Cycle bottom estimated for early September to October
· Ensuring the launch of Bitcoin staking aligns with the market recovery period
to secure runway

◆ Marketing & Growth (Rick)

· Significantly expanded Stacks exposure in key search terms such as
self-custody Bitcoin yield and Bitcoin-native finance
· High ranking for productive Bitcoin-related queries in AI prompts/searches
· Stacks is preempting the "Bitcoin Native" category
· Major overhaul of Stacks platform, including website, is planned
· Multiple major app announcements expected in July
· Institutional accessibility complete, including Coinbase Coin50 Index ranking 40th, Grayscale Trust,
21Shares ETP, and Fireblocks integration

◆ Foundation Grants & Governance (Claire)

▸ Interim Grant Achievements
· Voltify, Runes Capsule mainnet launched
· Degen Labs mobile app live on Google Play
· Stacks Agent gaining developer traction
· BNS1 social login flow live
· Boom activated 70+ merchant storefronts
· Full recap blog post coming soon

▸ Governance
· SIP-045 and SIP-044 (Clarity 6) to proceed in the same voting window
· Connection flow built into the Ballot platform (two votes in one session)
· This week is CAB voting week
· Zero Authority team supporting CAB member onboarding

◆ Treasury Committee Q2 Results (Rena, Endowment)

▸ Market Conditions
· Crypto market downturn since the beginning of the year, with approximately $220B
flowing out of the global crypto market in Q2 alone (liquidity shifting to AI/stocks, etc.)
· Stacks, as a high-beta Bitcoin asset, fell approximately 25% in Q2
· Bitcoin drawdown is on a 4-year cycle, declines last 12-13 months,
and rebounds accelerate faster than previous cycles (2018, 2022 cycles validated)

▸ Treasury Management Principles
· Long-term treasury (on-chain locked assets) remains untouched
· Short-term holdings of 112 million STX to be used as operating capital for the next 12 months
· The endowment aims for a 10-25 year lifespan

▸ Two Notable Signals
· BlackRock IBIT: Recorded the largest single-day inflow of its two-year ETF operation
this quarter → Institutional capital has not dried up
· In May, STX saw a single candle spike of $0.32 on Binance market
→ Increased miner bids expand reward capacity for 2-week cycles
→ Market buying pressure = directly linked to expanded bond issuance capacity

▸ Bitcoin Staking Opportunity
· ETH/SOL staking market: $38-50B in assets
· Total Bitcoin staking: Less than $2B
· Standing at the forefront of a huge untapped market
· Fireblocks integration completed, securing infrastructure for institutional access to Bitcoin bonds
· UTXO Management (Nakamoto Asset Management division) is the first partner

▸ Grant Program
· All Q1 grantees are in Milestone 3 (user activation phase)
· Q2 grants closed, selection announcement expected this weekend
(DeFi, Perps, RWA, Agentic, Privacy tracks)
· dGrants revival: 3 stewards selected, community operations maintained

◆ Zest Protocol (Tycho)

▸ Token Related
· Binance Futures listing in June (most important liquidity for new tokens)
· Followed by Bitget, Bybit Futures listings

▸ Product Updates
· Swap interface introduced to Zest web app
(STX can be used to purchase ZEST, based on Bitflow pools)
· 785 sBTC deposited, approximately 1.6% APY
· USDCx borrowing rate approx. 2% → Effective cost of BTC-backed borrowing approx. 0.2%
(Lowest level across all crypto)
· Whale case: 50 sBTC collateral for 1.6 million USDCx borrowing
· Bear market liquidations handled successfully, 0 non-performing loans maintained for 2 years
· Bitcoin Collateral Vaults undergoing internal testing

▸ Bitcoin Staking Linkage Outlook
· Bringing staked Bitcoin yield on-chain
creates Bitcoin yield/leverage yield use cases
· Bitcoin anchor assets with percentage yields
are unique to this ecosystem
· Other chain BTC DeFi yields: 0-0.1% level
· Stacks: 1-3%, up to 6% with leverage
· Related product announcements expected within weeks

◆ Bitflow (Diego)

· Cumulative processed trading volume surpasses $3.3B (swap + liquidity + aggregator)
· HODLMM swaps alone approaching $300M
· Capital efficiency: Zest pool 30-day volume $2.78M / TVL $100K
→ 28x volume/TVL ratio
· USDh pool 30-day $1.2M, approx. 10x ratio
· ZEST price surge reached ceiling, second pool activated
· HODLMM is establishing itself as a repeatable launch infrastructure
· Infrastructure: 99.9% uptime, pool data API response time under 1 second
· Agent dashboard launched (AIBTC 1,000+ agents registered)
· BFF Army Education Hub: Dozens of bootcamps, approx. 800 participants,
approx. 600 new wallets, confirmed inflow to Zest/StackingDAO, etc.
· Leo token to be launched as HODLMM's first memetoken in July
(12,000+ holders, no bridge required)

◆ AIBTC (Publius)

· "Bitcoin will be the currency of AI"
· Create agents at https://t.co/DfKUnAuRIY, interact with 1,000+ agents
· Supports Bitcoin L1 + Stacks + Lightning (99% of usage on Stacks)
· Approximately $25,000 worth of Bitcoin has flowed through agents to date
· AIBTC Legions concept to be unveiled (within 1-2 weeks)
- Bitcoin pools controlled by agents through capital-weighted voting
- First case is AI inference legion
- Send BTC to receive AI inference service, 8% fee goes to treasury
· Forecasts "by 2030, 99% of crypto transactions will be performed by agents"

◆ Conclusion

· Bitcoin staking (self-custody BTC yield) to launch this summer
· Updates to continue at next month's town hall