PANews reported on June 5 that according to Coindesk, 16 institutions including Galaxy, a digital asset financial services company owned by Mike Novogratz, and Fireblocks, a crypto custodian, will become node operators for the Bitcoin Layer2 network Botanix. These operators have completed access preparations and will be operational after the Botanix mainnet goes online later this quarter. Botanix Labs aims to ensure the decentralized nature of the network from the initial stage by forming a node alliance composed of multiple entities. The network plans to transition to a dynamic alliance model in the future, and ultimately any user in the world can run a Botanix node. Other institutions joining the alliance include blockchain development platform Alchemy, Bitcoin mining pool Antpool, and hedge fund UTXO Management.

Botanix testnet Aragog has launched a series of DeFi basic tools, including BTC-collateralized stablecoin Palladium, decentralized exchange Bitzy, and lending market Spindle. Its protocol Spiderchain is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which theoretically allows Ethereum smart contracts and DeFi applications to run directly on the Bitcoin network.