Bitcoin Ecosystem New Hotspot: Can Odin.fun Bear the Responsibility of Revival?

Recently, a project called Odin.fun has attracted attention in certain circles. It is a token launch platform based on the Runes protocol, similar to Pump.fun on other public chains. Its emergence has brought some excitement to the long-silent Bitcoin ecosystem. However, on March 7, users reported that 74 Bitcoins suddenly disappeared from the Odin.fun platform, suspected to have encountered a hacking attack. The project team quickly responded that this was due to an error in the hard deposit synchronization code, which caused some users' balances to show amounts exceeding their actual deposits, and that users' funds are actually safe.

In the cryptocurrency industry, the relationship between public chains and token launch platforms is often complementary. A popular token launch platform can bring a large amount of traffic to the public chain it is associated with. This is also one of the reasons why such platforms can quickly gain popularity. However, unlike token launch platforms on other public chains, Bitcoin ecosystem projects like Odin.fun are not directly built on the Bitcoin main chain. To enhance user experience and reduce transaction fees, they are usually deployed on top of Bitcoin's layer two network. A major issue faced by this architecture is the difficulty in fully sharing the security of the Bitcoin main chain. Odin.fun's recent "misunderstanding incident" is a concrete manifestation of this problem.

What is more worth discussing is whether this token launch platform deployed on the second layer network can truly attract enough funds and users for the revival of the Bitcoin ecosystem?

Product Design of Odin.fun

Odin.fun was launched in February 2025, founded by the creator of the Bitcoin ordinal market Bioniq. Essentially, it is a token launch and trading platform based on the Runes protocol. According to official data, the trading volume exceeded 1000BTC within the first month of the platform's launch, with the number of user addresses surpassing 37,000. The maximum market cap token ODINDOG•ID•YTTL•ODIN once reached 35 million dollars.

The Runes protocol is not a brand new concept; it was born after the Bitcoin halving in 2024. Following the emergence of the Ordinals inscription protocol and the BRC-20 token protocol, developer Casey proposed the Runes protocol to address issues such as low transfer efficiency and UTXO inflation present in BRC-20. The emergence of these protocols has brought new ways for asset issuance beyond value storage for Bitcoin, and it has also driven explosive growth in the Bitcoin ecosystem and related infrastructure in 2023 and 2024.

The innovation of Odin.fun lies in its improvement of the asset issuance and trading methods of the Runes protocol. As a token launch platform, the key to its success is whether the "casino" experience design can provide users with a good "speculation" experience.

In terms of specific user experience, Odin.fun has achieved second-level issuance and one-click trading of Runes assets. The official claims that by adopting a second-layer solution called Valhalla, the platform can complete transaction confirmations within 2 seconds. In addition to high speed, users can also enjoy convenient features such as account abstraction (, no social login ), no Gas transactions, and transactions that do not require repeated signature confirmations. These advantages stem from Odin.fun hiding the complexity of the underlying chain.

As a second-layer product under the Bitcoin main chain, users need to create an account and deposit using a Bitcoin wallet. The deposit process is essentially transferring Bitcoin across chains to the project's second-layer network. Although the second-layer solution brings convenience to users, the official has not disclosed detailed technical implementation methods. This "false alarm incident" also exposed potential vulnerabilities or immaturity in its technology.

According to the project party's explanation, the funds deposited by users will enter a decentralized 12/34 threshold signature setup to ensure the security of BTC. These funds are then sent to the ODIN•FUN smart contract, which is pegged to the platform's BTC 1:1. However, the model of entrusting assets to the platform for management is essentially still similar to a centralized exchange.

In terms of trading rules, Odin.fun refers to the token launch process as "Ascend", which is the token binding ( bonding ) process. The newly created token initially trades along the binding curve, with 80% of the supply sold at a price of 0.211 BTC. The starting price is 0.11 sats ( with a market value of 3000 USD ), and Ascend is completed at 4.76 sats ( with a market value of 100,000 USD ). It then enters the AMM phase, where the remaining 20% of the supply and 0.2 BTC enter the AMM pool to support further trading, following the AMM curve k = X * Y.

The platform also supports LP market making and adopts a marketing model that returns 25% of platform fees to the referrer.

Can Odin.fun Lead the Revival of the Bitcoin Ecosystem?

The current development situation of the Bitcoin ecosystem is not optimistic, lacking projects that can ignite widespread participation, making it difficult to attract a large influx of funds and users. Although Pump.fun and Viturals once brought attention to the Solana and Base ecosystems through meme hype, Odin.fun seems to have failed to generate the same excitement, with its leading token's highest market capitalization only reaching 35 million USD.

In fact, similar MemePump patterns have appeared multiple times in the Bitcoin ecosystem, such as Satspump.fun on Fractal, Lnpump.fun on the Lightning Network, and Stx.city on Stacks. However, these projects on layer two or sidechain networks have failed to achieve the influence of Pump.fun. The main reason is that, as latecomers, it is difficult to surpass successful precedents, and they lack the endorsement of the Bitcoin main chain's legitimacy.

Odin.fun has garnered some attention, mainly due to its combination of Runes, a new asset issuance method closely associated with the Bitcoin mainnet, along with the current market's lack of hot topics. However, its influence remains limited, making it difficult to become a project with unique innovation and strong hype like inscriptions. In terms of the Bitcoin ecosystem, such a project with relatively weak narratives is unlikely to bear the heavy responsibility of ecological revival.

For investors, it is possible to participate with small amounts of capital. When selecting potential tokens, attention should be paid to community activity and the trends of major funds. However, essentially, this type of investment is closer to gambling and is similar to the speculation of Meme coins, so it should be approached with caution.