January 2026 Recap: Scaling Bitcoin Onchain With tBTC

January 2026 marked a strong start to the year for Threshold Network, with continued growth in tBTC adoption, new vault launches across emerging ecosystems, and deeper engagement with Bitcoin’s onchain role. As market conditions shifted, Threshold remained focused on resilience, trust-minimized design, and sustainable Bitcoin utility.

Throughout the month, Threshold Network advanced its core mission of bringing Bitcoin onchain without compromising its security model or economic integrity. Key research, protocol updates, and ecosystem expansions reinforced tBTC’s position as a reliable, production-ready bridge for Bitcoin liquidity.

Highlights

• tBTC has surpassed 48,000 BTC in cumulative volume to date and is on track to reach the 50,000 BTC milestone in Q2.
• Jan 27: Threshold released the tBTC Blueprint Report by Alea Research, detailing tBTC’s 800% growth since 2024 and underscoring its security and resilience relative to other tokenized Bitcoin alternatives.
• Jan 19: Amid market cycles, tBTC continued steady growth with 5,942 BTC in TVL and 97 percent of supply concentrated on Ethereum, signaling sustained
• Jan 5: The tBTC Noon Vault went live in partnership with Vesu and Starknet, introducing a structured BTC-denominated onchain positioning strategy.
• Jan 5: tBTC redemption fee waivers for $T stakers are now available on the Threshold App, reducing execution costs while strengthening protocol and governance alignment.

Milestones

tBTC Continues Steady Growth Amid Market Cycles

On January 19, tBTC continued to demonstrate resilience and sustained adoption amid broader market cycles. Total value locked reached 5,942 BTC, with 97 percent of supply concentrated on Ethereum, signaling consistent onchain demand and real usage.

These metrics reflect tBTC’s role as a production-ready Bitcoin bridge built without leverage, rehypothecation, or opaque yield mechanics. Its trust-minimized design continues to support predictable behavior across varying market conditions while preserving Bitcoin’s core principles.

tBTC Redemption Fee Waivers for $T Stakers

tBTC was designed to bring Bitcoin onchain while prioritizing security, transparency, and reliable market behavior. As adoption has increased, onchain performance has remained consistent across a wide range of market conditions.

The introduction of redemption-fee waivers for $T stakers builds on this foundation by reducing execution costs for active participants and reinforcing alignment between protocol usage and governance. This update refines the economics of interacting with the bridge, particularly at scale, without altering tBTC’s underlying mechanics.

Learn more about fee waivers for $T stakers:

Ecosystem Growth

Noon tBTC Yield Vault Goes Live and Gains Early Traction

On January 10, the Noon-tBTC Yield Vault launched on Threshold Network in partnership with Vesu, Starknet’s largest lending platform. Built around disciplined Bitcoin yield strategies, the vault initially targeted a 10 percent APY. Within two days, it reached $454,060 in TVL with a 7-day APY of 6.79 percent, signaling early interest in structured Bitcoin yield products.

Explore the vault: https://app.threshold.network/vaults/starknet-noon

BTC Blueprint Report by Alea Research

Bitcoin onchain is entering a phase where security, custodianship, and protocol design matter more than ever, and Threshold Network continues to advance this standard through tBTC.

The tBTC Blueprint Report by Alea Research focuses on tBTC and Threshold Network as a reference model for trust-minimized Bitcoin infrastructure. It analyzes how Threshold’s architecture, incentive design, and custody assumptions support scalable Bitcoin liquidity while maintaining predictable market behavior and strong security guarantees.

Read more: https://threshold.network/blog/the-threshold-network-blueprint-by-alea-research/ 

Media Highlights

Threshold featured in Decrypt on stake-based fee waivers

On January 23, Decrypt Media featured Threshold’s introduction of stake-based redemption fee waivers, highlighting how the update reduces execution friction and supports tighter pricing across Bitcoin markets.

Read the Decrypt feature to learn more: https://decrypt.co/355453/threshold-network-introduces-stake-based-fee-waivers-to-strengthen-tbtc 

Bitcoin allocation strategies on The Daily Stack

On January 30, Callan Sarre joined Bitcoin News’s The Daily Stack podcast to discuss how Bitcoin can be allocated across different risk profiles, including emerging opportunities powered by tBTC. The conversation explored how using Bitcoin as collateral can contribute to economic security to blockchain networks with relatively low financial risk.

Watch a snippet of the podcast episode: https://x.com/TheTNetwork/status/2017227776865267906

Bitcoin resilience under stress

On January 27, Callan Sarre, Co-Founder and CPO at Threshold Labs, shared insights with Decrypt Media on how miners respond to grid stress while Bitcoin’s consensus layer continues to operate as designed.

Read more: https://decrypt.co/355836/us-bitcoin-miners-slow-as-winter-storm-hits-power-grids

Team Update

Recently, we welcomed Vicky to Threshold Labs as a Software Engineer. Vicky brings 14 years of software engineering experience and has been active in crypto since 2017.

Vicky previously worked on NuCypher starting in 2016 and was directly involved in creating the Threshold Network smart contracts, giving her deep historical and technical context across the Threshold stack. Her experience strengthens the team’s ability to maintain and evolve core protocol infrastructure.

Looking Ahead

As 2026 unfolds, Threshold Network remains focused on strengthening Bitcoin’s role onchain through trust-minimized infrastructure and aligned economic incentives. Upcoming work will continue to prioritize protocol resilience, measured ecosystem expansion, and deeper integration across Bitcoin-native and emerging environments.

In the months ahead, Threshold will advance research, product development, and partnerships that support sustainable Bitcoin liquidity and long-term network security. The goal remains clear: make Bitcoin more usable without compromising the principles that underpin its value.

Follow Threshold Network for upcoming updates and releases.