Echo Protocol

Echo Protocol is a Bitcoin staking and liquidity infrastructure layer built to solve one of BTCFi's core problems: Bitcoin liquidity is deeply fragmented across dozens of wrapped standards, liquid staking tokens (LSTs), and bridged variants, making it cumbersome for holders to access DeFi yield without exposing themselves to complex depegging and slippage risks. Founded in August 2024 by CEO Jonathan Phay and co-founder Huan Tse, Echo aggregates that fragmented liquidity into a single unified BTC token and routes it into yield-generating strategies across multiple blockchains, including Solana.

How It Works

Echo operates through three architectural layers working in sequence.

The Liquidity Aggregation Layer accepts a wide range of Bitcoin asset forms—native BTC, fBTC, wBTC, uBTC, oBTC, enzoBTC, and Bitcoin LSTs like PumpBTC and LBTC—and converts them into a single unified BTC representation. By consolidating supply across these standards, Echo improves pricing efficiency and eliminates the slippage penalty users typically face when moving between BTC variants.

The LST Infrastructure Layer maintains price stability for the unified BTC token through real-time Proof-of-Reserve verification. Echo partners with Chainlink and Redstone as oracle providers to ensure every unit of unified BTC minted is backed 1:1 by underlying assets, with a live PoR feed preventing depegging. The protocol applies strict on-chain and off-chain due diligence to each accepted asset before integration.

The Yield Layer deploys unified BTC into a suite of DeFi strategies. For native BTC deposits, Echo stakes them on Bitcoin restaking platforms—including Babylon, EigenLayer, and Symbiotic—before minting the unified token on the user's target chain, capturing base-layer restaking yield before any DeFi strategy is applied.

Products

Echo Vault is the protocol's flagship staking product, offering multi-chain vaults where users deposit supported BTC assets and earn yield in a single click. Vaults are available across Solana, Aptos, Movement, Morph, and Hemi, with APYs reaching up to 30% depending on the vault and asset. Total Value Locked across vaults exceeded $641 million as of early July 2025, with the protocol recording a peak TVL of $878 million in May 2025.

Echo Strategy is an automated yield optimization product that continuously rebalances across integrated DeFi protocols to maximize returns. It offers risk-tiered strategies—Safe, Moderate, and Aggressive—to suit different risk tolerances. The Echo Strategy vault alone reported $120 million in TVL with a 22% APY.

Echo Lending is a borrowing and lending market built on the unified BTC standard, with over $220 million in net assets and support for multiple collateral types including aBTC, zUSDT, zUSDC, APT, and eAPT. Total borrowed reached $22.3 million at a 9.16% utilization rate at the time of writing, indicating a conservative and liquid lending book.

eMSTR is a structured product offering a minimum 2.5x leveraged BTC position without liquidation risk. The design uses convertible note structures to provide amplified Bitcoin exposure without the margin-call mechanics of traditional DeFi lending.

CeDeFi combines centralized custody with on-chain yield through a partnership with Ceffu, enabling delta-neutral strategies where users earn dual returns from both native BTC staking and on-chain liquidity provision.

ECHO Token

The ECHO governance and utility token launched on July 2, 2025 via a bonding curve IDO that started at a lower price and increased as demand grew. ECHO listed on Binance Alpha—making Echo the first Aptos ecosystem project to receive this listing distinction—as well as Gate.io and KuCoin. The token serves four functions: time-weighted staking for value accrual, protocol revenue sharing from BTCFi products, gauge-based emissions direction, and on-chain governance. A portion of the 15% total supply allocated to the community was distributed as airdrop rewards to early protocol participants.

Team and Investors

Echo raised a pre-seed round in October 2024 led by The Spartan Group. Additional investors include ABCDE Capital, Maelstrom (the crypto fund co-founded by Arthur Hayes), Selini Capital, Presto Labs, Sats Ventures, Web3Port Labs, and strategic partners Aptos Network and Movement Labs. Individual backers include Jordi Alexander and Auros Global.

Jonathan Phay serves as CEO and co-founder, with Huan Tse as co-founder. Echo has built a community of over one million members who call themselves "Nekos," reflecting rapid grassroots growth in under a year of operation.

Security and Audits

Echo enforces asset-level due diligence through continuous on-chain and off-chain monitoring for every BTC variant it accepts. Proof-of-Reserve feeds powered by Chainlink and Redstone provide real-time attestation that unified BTC tokens remain fully backed. The protocol's integration criteria require passing quality control checks before any new BTC standard is listed, reducing systemic risk from individual asset failures.

Solana Ecosystem Fit

Solana users can access Echo through its cross-chain vault infrastructure. Bitcoin holders who want to deploy capital into Solana DeFi can bridge supported BTC assets into Echo's Solana vault, earning base-layer Bitcoin restaking yield combined with Solana-native DeFi returns—without manually managing multiple wrapped BTC positions or liquidity pools. This positions Echo as a connectivity layer between Bitcoin's deep capital base and Solana's high-throughput DeFi ecosystem. As Solana's BTCFi infrastructure develops, Echo's multi-chain architecture makes it one of the few Bitcoin staking protocols with active vault products spanning both Solana and Move ecosystem chains simultaneously.