Rebar Labs is planning to launch the first native Bitcoin platform that protects traders from Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) strategies, such as front-running, by the end of 2024, the company's CEO Alex Luce shared in an interview with TinTucBitcoin.

The growing ecosystem of decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and layer-2 (L2) scaling solutions on Bitcoin is breathing new life into the oldest blockchain network, but also introducing new risks for traders, including malicious MEV.

“Right now, if we talk about MEV, the most obvious example on Bitcoin is preemptive blocking,” Luce said. “This happens quite frequently.”

Source: Rebar Labs

Rebar’s Shield could become Bitcoin’s equivalent of Ethereum’s Flashbots, which have been known to protect around $43 billion in DEX transactions from MEV since 2021, according to data from Dune Analytics.

Shield is designed to protect traders from malicious MEV, while promoting interoperability across Bitcoin's fragmented DEX ecosystem.

“On Bitcoin, these DEXs don’t interact well and liquidity is fragmented,” Luce noted. “That’s where MEV comes in — someone can step in, balance the price, and help users execute trades.”

Rebar's Shield also aims to increase profits for Bitcoin Miners, who process transactions and post them to Bitcoin's blockchain ledger.

“We are talking to all the major Miners in the space,” Luce said, adding that Rebar plans to launch Shield with “a large chunk of the Bitcoin network’s hashrate.”

Source: DefiLlama

Bitcoin started out as a simple peer-to-peer payment protocol, but the 2021 Taproot upgrade allowed the network to support more complex operations, including the creation and trading of other types of tokens, as well as the creation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

DeFi (DeFi) on Bitcoin is still new and mainly for original traders in the Cryptocurrency space.

“Right now, the daily volume is a couple million, max. It’s negligible. Our assessment of this space right now is that it’s a very early beta where you don’t have a lot of engaged users,” Luce said, adding:

“The target user today is very different than the target user we expect in 12 or 24 months.”

During this time, Bitcoin's original L2s — like Babylon, Core Chain, Rootstock, and Stacks — are gaining attention.

The total value locked (TVL) on Bitcoin L2s is currently around $2 billion as of October 18, according to data from DefiLlama.

“In the next 12 months, if you can’t get good execution on Bitcoin, you’re likely to move to L2,” Luce said. “I think it’s a missed opportunity if that happens, because Bitcoin is a great market.”

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