The Bitcoin blockchain ecosystem has witnessed a surge in speculative points farming, with Merlin leading the trend. Within just a month, Merlin has experienced a remarkable 2,000% growth, accumulating over $1 billion in total value locked (TVL), surpassing established layer-1s like Avalanche and Polygon.

The majority of Merlin’s TVL is held in Solv Finance, a protocol enabling users to deposit wrapped bitcoin and receive 'Solv Points'. These points, although valueless themselves, often determine allocations in future token airdrops. Recent airdrops linked to Solana and EigenLayer have highlighted the significance of points farming within the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Merlin's native token, MERL, recently experienced a nearly 40% decline since its listing on CoinGecko. Despite this, Merlin positions itself as a Bitcoin layer-2 solution, enhancing transaction privacy and efficiency through zero-knowledge proofs integrated with Bitcoin’s blockchain via Taproot. Unlike Ethereum zk rollups, where proofs are verified on-chain, Merlin’s off-chain verification ensures scalability and security without overwhelming the Bitcoin mainnet.

The growth of Merlin reflects a broader trend of renewed interest in speculative applications for bitcoin beyond its price. The introduction of Runes and the influx of venture capital into the ecosystem underscore this trend. Additionally, there's a race among projects like Stacks to draw liquidity to Bitcoin layer-2 solutions, exemplified by Stacks' recent Nakamoto upgrade aimed at improving speed