ChainCatcher news, the Bitcoin Layer 2 network Merlin Chain has officially announced a strategic partnership with UXUY. The UXUY iOS, Android, and Telegram versions now fully support Merlin Chain, allowing users to trade assets on the Merlin network and create meme red envelopes.UXUY is a multi-chain trading platform incubated and invested by Binance Labs, focusing on on-chain trading of memes and emerging assets, with over 3 million users. To further enrich the Bitcoin meme ecosystem, UXUY will collaborate with Merlin Chain to continuously lower the barriers for meme on-chain trading. At the same time, both parties will jointly launch the first on-chain red envelope feature in the Bitcoin ecosystem, enabling users to create meme red envelopes on the Merlin chain using the UXUY Telegram wallet, which will significantly enhance community and token holder growth.UXUY founder Kevin stated, "We are excited to establish a strategic partnership with Merlin Chain to explore the infinite potential of meme trading on the Bitcoin ecosystem chain."

ChainCatcher news, the Bitcoin Layer 2 network Merlin Chain announced a strategic partnership with the Bitcoin smart contract operating system BitcoinOS, which will adopt BitcoinOS's innovative BitSNARK technology to provide a more secure cross-chain solution, further ensuring the safety of over $2.5 billion in on-chain assets.It is reported that BitcoinOS is the first project to showcase zero-knowledge proofs at the Bitcoin Nashville conference in July 2024, providing the industry's most advanced solution for cross-chain Bitcoin assets. By integrating BitcoinOS, Merlin Chain will achieve a cross-chain solution that does not rely on multi-signatures or MPC, significantly enhancing the security and efficiency of user cross-chain transactions.This collaboration sets a new standard for technical security in the Bitcoin ecosystem and is a key milestone in Merlin Chain's technology roadmap for the second half of 2024. Merlin Chain will continue to incentivize native innovation and remain at the forefront of ZK research, committed to creating a secure, transparent, and decentralized on-chain environment for users and the Bitcoin ecosystem.

ChainCatcher news, Bitcoin Layer 2 network Merlin Chain releases its semi-annual report, reviewing its growth trajectory in the first half of 2024, as well as milestones in various aspects such as public chain, growth, ecology, and technology------breaking records for mainnet TVL, the most prosperous application ecosystem, and the most solid user community, setting an industry benchmark for Bitcoin Layer 2. This includes:$200 million TVL, $16 billion in bridging volume, 1.9 million on-chain addresses, 12.7 million transactions;TVL on the mainnet exceeded $3.9 billion in 50 days (88% from native assets like BTC, Ordinals), with M-BTC's market cap reaching $1.2 billion in the first half of the year;Bridged $16 billion in Bitcoin, $1.6 billion in spot trading, $1.4 billion in perpetual contract trading, and over $1 billion in cross-chain assets, becoming a mainstream Bitcoin hub;Asset trading volume exceeded $3 billion, with DEX liquidity surpassing $78 million;Incubated No. 1 industry-leading applications in DEX, cross-chain bridges, lending, infrastructure, entertainment, etc. (UniCross, Solv Protocol, Surf Protocol, Avalon Labs, MerlinSwap, MerlinStarter, etc.);Launched a comprehensive security framework and on-chain architecture, collaborating with industry leaders Celestia, Cobo, Slowmist, etc., to create a secure and transparent on-chain environment;The release rate of MERL will significantly slow down in the second half of the year, with only 0.4% released over the next 12 months.It is reported that Merlin Chain plans to continue its efforts in technology, ecology, and community in the second half of the year, further leading industry standards and promoting the sustainable development of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

ChainCatcher message, ZK interoperability infrastructure Polyhedra Network announced that it has integrated its Decentralized Verification Network (DVN) with Merlin Chain through LayerZero. After the integration is complete, more than 100 applications in the Merlin ecosystem can benefit from ZK secure interoperability.

ChainCatcher news, the Bitcoin Layer2 project Zulu Network tweeted that it has established a strategic partnership with Merlin Chain, and both parties will work together to promote better development in the Bitcoin field.

ChainCatcher news, according to official sources, Bedrock has announced that it now supports the use of re-staked BTC/MBTC on the Merlin Chain to mint liquidity-staked Bitcoin uniBTC based on the Babylon protocol.

ChainCatcher news, the Merlin ecosystem DEX MerlinSwap has released a proposal for the second phase of airdrop allocation voting, which will end on July 1.The proposal includes allocating 2% of the total supply of tokens for airdrop rewards, with 20% of the airdrop rewards distributed to MerlinSwap IDO participants, 20% of the airdrop rewards distributed to users who purchase more than $100 worth of MP tokens (evenly distributed), and 60% allocated to esMP supporters (esMP Solid holders, esMP stakers, and esMP Boosters). Additionally, the weight of esMP Stakers and esMP Boosters in the airdrop allocation will be slightly higher than that of esMP Solid holders.

ChainCatcher news, MerlinChain official announced on social media that Merlin Phantom for Bitmap is now officially launched. Users can exchange 1 Bitmap for 10,000 Bitmap Rune tokens. Gas fees are completely free for early users (using AA wallet) and will last for about a week. Users can also accumulate Unicross points through this action.

ChainCatcher news, according to official sources, the BTC native stablecoin protocol bitSmiley has announced an adjustment to its incentive conditions, offering a reward of 3,150,000 BIT tokens to members of the Merlin community, with the liquidity grant period from May 15, 2024, to August 15, 2024.It is reported that the liquidity incentive funds will be distributed based on the bitPoints earned by users on the Merlin chain. The more points users earn, the more token incentives they will receive.

ChainCatcher news, according to official information, Merlin Chain has announced that the AA wallet has completed its upgrade. Users' first transaction will automatically sync with the new upgraded contract (meanwhile, the Gas fee will remain unchanged), and the Gas fee for each transaction in the future will be significantly reduced by 80-90%.

ChainCatcher message, Merlin Chain indicates that the mainnet upgrade will take place today at 15:00, expected to last for 12 hours. During the upgrade, block generation will be paused, and the cross-chain bridge as well as the Particle wallet will be unavailable.The upgrade includes: upgrading the Polygon CDK version from fork5 to fork8; improving the performance of AA wallet transactions; optimizing the data synchronization efficiency of external nodes, etc.

ChainCatcher message, Merlin Chain announced on social media that the Merlin mainnet and AA wallet upgrade will start at 3 PM Beijing time on May 24 and will last for 12 hours.During the upgrade, block generation will be paused, and the cross-chain bridge and Particle Network's AA wallet will be unavailable. Please prepare accordingly in advance.

ChainCatcher message, the official post from Merlin Chain states that all assets of Merlin's Seal can be unstaked (BTC, Bitmap, BRC-20, BRC-420, ORDI-NFT, USDT, USDC, ETH).In addition, the Merlin Chain update also includes enabling asset transfers from Merlin (L2) to L1, including: BTC, Bitmap, BRC-20, BRC-420, ORDI-NFT, ERC-20. Only Runes are temporarily not supported for cross-chain withdrawals. The Gas fee has been reduced from 0.00008 BTC ($5.03) to 0.00005 BTC ($3.15).

ChainCatcher message, Bitmap Tech stated on social media that MERL holders will share the revenue of Merlin Chain.

ChainCatcher news, the cross-chain interoperability protocol LayerZero has launched on Merlin Chain. This integration enables Merlin to connect with over 70 other networks. Developers can leverage Merlin's core features, such as BRC-20/420.According to the Web3 asset data platform RootData, LayerZero is a full-chain interoperability protocol designed for lightweight messaging across chains. LayerZero provides trusted and secure messaging with configurable decentralization.

ChainCatcher message, MerlinStarter announced on social media the launch of the Merlin Blockchain Explorer.In addition, the airdrop event is ongoing.

ChainCatcher message, Merlin Chain's official announcement states that its testnet will undergo an upgrade today at 16:00, which is expected to take several hours. The official team will conduct comprehensive testing on the upgraded network. This upgrade includes:Support for precompiled contracts SHA256, ecAdd, ecMul, and ecPairing;Improvement of AA transactions;Support for multiple transactions within a single block;Each block will have a timestamp.

ChainCatcher news, Bitmap Tech, the parent company of the Bitcoin Layer2 scaling solution Merlin Chain, announced on platform X that Merlin Chain has opened the option to unstake BTC. 1. If users have not previously claimed M-BTC, they can directly cross back BTC to Layer 1. After paying the gas fee, BTC will arrive at the Layer 1 BTC wallet in 3 days, or they can cross back BTC to their Layer 2 wallet without paying gas, which will take about 24 hours to reach the Layer 2 wallet address. If users have previously claimed M-BTC, they can now swap M-BTC for BTC at a 1:1 ratio, and then continue trading or use a cross-chain bridge to return to Layer 1. Users need to have sufficient gas in their wallets to complete this operation. Please note that the Merlin AA wallet is currently very congested, so please perform the swap during non-peak hours.In addition, some dApps require M-BTC to participate, and temporarily BTC cannot be swapped back to M-BTC, so users may consider keeping M-BTC for a while. The 1:1 swap of M-BTC to BTC will exist long-term. Once the majority of the BTC unstaking is processed, Merlin Chain will subsequently open the unstaking for BRC-20. Then, the unstaking for NFTs will follow. If users wish to quickly sell NFTs, they can trade on NFT markets like Unicross, where the trading volume has exceeded $50,000 in the past 12 hours. Merlin stated: "The unstaking of Merlin assets is proceeding effectively and safely. Please be patient and pay attention to the gas on Layer 1/2 chains."