Babylon, a Bitcoin staking protocol, has received an undisclosed amount in a strategic investment from Binance Labs, Binance's venture capital arm.

Babylon is a Stanford-incubated blockchain protocol that lets users earn yield from staking their Bitcoin holdings. Built using the Cosmos software development kit (SDK), the protocol offers a non-custodial way for users to use Bitcoin to validate proof-of-stake chains. The protocol also offers fast unbonding and scalable restaking features to provide users with improved liquidity and yields.

Analyst QuickTake : This news adds to a growing trend of Bitcoin layer-2 projects exploring the use of smart contracts to expand the functionality of Bitcoin. The space has also seen recent interest from investors over the last few months, with startups such as Portal , a decentralized exchange built on the Bitcoin blockchain, and Bitfinity , a Bitcoin layer-2 network, raising USD 34 million and USD 7 million , respectively, earlier this year. Notably, these developments also coincide with the approval of several spot Bitcoin ETFs. This investment adds to the USD 18 million raised by the company in December of last year.