Lightning⚡|

Shout out to our brilliant devs at @CswapDEX for creating something truly awesome for the Cardano community in Bitcoin DeFi. It's great to see Bitcoin TVL on @btc_karma increasing as more people discover the platform. What makes this even more special is that BTC Karma was almost entirely self-funded. We received a small grant from @builder__dao that helped us get to mainnet. Thank you 🙏 We're sorry to see meaningful ecosystem grant programs for teams like ours disappear. We've proven ourselves over 5 years of building on Cardano. We've built one of Cardano's most sophisticated DEXs, an innovative NFT marketplace with features that became multimillion-dollar standalone businesses on other chains, a live Bitcoin protocol with venture-scale potential, and deep RWA infrastructure that most of the ecosystem hasn't even seen yet. I genuinely believe the relatively small amount of ecosystem funding invested in our team has been some of the most cost-efficient capital Cardano has ever deployed. I say that sincerely, and as an ADA investor myself. It makes zero sense to deprive a team of resources after demonstrating this level of execution and capital efficiency for five years. I expressed this to the chain's founder and he told me to go fuck myself, go to hell, called me a drama queen and then blocked me on X. Fine. It's pushed us to focus much of our future growth elsewhere. That may ultimately be better for our team and community, but I don't believe it was better for Cardano. The good news: we're now in discussions with institutional investors and one of the largest organizations in Web3 about potentially helping us scale BTC Karma, which could create substantial value for Cardano and ADA holders. I really hope it works out. I still think we can really help here. But if I were responsible for Cardano's ecosystem strategy, there is absolutely no way I would leave an opportunity like this to chance. To me it seems reckless and wasteful from a pure capital allocation perspective. In the meantime, the best thing I can ask for is community support. Use the platform. Stake your Bitcoin. Help us grow Cardano's Bitcoin economy. BTC Karma isn't a huge money maker for us today. We built it because we saw an enormous opportunity for Cardano. But realizing that opportunity at scale requires institutional capital and support. That's what makes this frustrating. We've spent five years proving ourselves. We've shipped repeatedly. We've attended Cardano events around the world. We've participated in governance, Intersect and the broader ecosystem. All while watching competitors receive substantial institutional support and subsidies that simply weren't available to us. That doesn't make any sense to me. At some point, a proven team shouldn't have to keep fighting for the bare minimum treatment. And we're just getting started with BTC Karma. Phase II: earn $KARMA + $BTC and USD stablecoins through composable yield strategies. Holding more $KARMA will provide priority access to capital-constrained real yield opportunities. This will eventually work alongside @ebecca_rwa and its RWA marketplace + AMM liquidity infrastructure. The $KARMA mechanics were designed for long-term alignment. Long-term participation is rewarded, and whale influence has been carefully considered in the emissions strategy. If you already hold Bitcoin, stake some on BTC Karma. Climb the levels. Help us prove what Bitcoin DeFi on Cardano can become and grow an important ecosystem KPI: Bitcoin TVL. If you don't hold Bitcoin but want to support what we're building, learn about $KARMA and participate in the community. $KARMA is designed to become increasingly important as BTC Karma expands into real-yield opportunities. Thank you guys. We always wanted to build directly with the community and stay out of ecosystem politics. Market conditions eventually forced our hand, but moving forward we want to return to our roots. Build great products. Treat people fairly. Give the community opportunities to participate. A little support from the community right now can help us demonstrate the demand, grow Cardano's Bitcoin TVL, and maximize the return on five years of work we've put into this ecosystem. 🙏 ☯️