Stablecoin

Dollar

BitShares

Bitcoin

Dollar on Chain

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 <p>A new stablecoin has joined the crypto party. Alpen Labs has unveiled the Bitcoin Dollar (BTD), a US dollar-pegged stablecoin fully backed by Bitcoin. It’s the latest attempt at a departure from conventional stablecoins that rely on fiat reserves, mixed crypto collateral, or governance tokens. The protocol is deployed on Alpen’s zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup layer-2 network, combining BTC over-collateralization with immutable smart contracts to advance censorship-resistant financial tools.</p>
 <p>Alpen Labs positions BTD as a neutral public-good protocol that eliminates custodial and governance risks. The network allows users to mint and redeem tokens directly through on-chain mechanisms, without centralized control or upgradeable code, aligned with Bitcoin's decentralization principles.</p>
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   <p>– The Bitcoin Dollar is the stablecoin Bitcoin deserves – a neutral, immutable protocol that empowers users while upholding decentralization – David Seroy, Head of Ecosystem at Alpen Labs, said in a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alpen-labs-announces-the-bitcoin-dollar-btd-a-censorship-resistant-btc-backed-stablecoin-302449866.html" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><span>press release</span></a>.</p>
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 <h2 id="how-btd-differs-from-existing-stablecoins">How BTD differs from existing stablecoins</h2>
 <p>Unlike fiat-backed tokens such as USDC and USDT, which depend on off-chain USD reserves held by centralized custodians, BTD locks BTC as collateral using Liquity V2’s governance-free borrowing architecture. This design ensures 100% over-collateralization and peg stability without relying on any governance or utility tokens.</p>
 <p>In contrast to algorithmic stablecoins – many of which suffered high-profile depegs (check here for the list of failed stablecoins: <a href="https://chainsec.io/failed-stablecoins" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><span>ChainSec.io</span></a>) – BTD’s collateral model and immutable contracts aim to maintain consistent dollar parity.</p>
 <p>Additionally, BTD’s zero-knowledge rollup security creates a high-trust bridge for Bitcoin transactions. While the protocol depends on third-party oracles for BTC/USD price feeds, Alpen Labs plans to aggregate multiple data sources to mitigate oracle risks and maintain robust pricing.</p>
 <p>“Many very credible stablecoins already exist, and even more are coming. But none have met the bar for a truly Bitcoin-native financial primitive, one that’s scalable, censorship-resistant, private, and permissionless. That vision is finally coming into focus,” Seroy wrote in a blog post on <a href="https://www.alpenlabs.io/blog/bitcoin-dollar" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><span>Alpen’s website</span></a>, summing up the core idea of the project.</p>
 <h2 id="early-bitcoin-backed-stablecoins">Early Bitcoin-backed stablecoins</h2>
 <p>The first crypto-collaterized stablecoin was BitUSD. In July 2014, it emerged on the BitShares blockchain attempting to maintain a 1:1 peg via BitShares collateral, but ultimately suffered from <a href="https://www.withtap.com/blog/what-weve-learned-in-a-decade-of-stablecoins" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><span>unpegging issues</span></a> during market downturns.</p>
 <p>The same year saw the launch of NuBits, governed by the uncollateralized, algorithmically-backed Seigniorage system. However, volatility in its collateral and under-diversification led to peg failures in 2016 and 2018. These early experiments highlighted the risks of both algorithmic and crypto-backed models without strong over-collateralization and immutable code.</p>
 <p>By December 2019, Money on Chain introduced Dollar on Chain (DOC) on the RSK sidechain, marketing it as the first fully BTC-collateralized stablecoin on a Bitcoin layer-2. DOC’s smart contracts guarantee a 1:1 USD peg backed solely by locked BTC, avoiding fiat dependencies and offering trust-minimized minting and redemption via RSK’s federated bridge. While DOC endured without major depegs, its reliance on a federated RSK bridge and absence of zero-knowledge proofs left room for further innovation, such as Alpen Labs’ BTD.</p>
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Alpen Labs Launches Bitcoin Dollar, A Bitcoin-Collateralized Stablecoin

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