Welcome back to Build on Core, your monthly roundup of the biggest developments, launches, and milestones across the Core ecosystem. January was about turning last year’s builder momentum into repeatable execution: clearer revenue rails, more real-world utility for CORE, stronger staking participation, and ecosystem activations that keep users (and fees) flowing on-chain across BTCFi, RWAs, payments, and consumer apps.
Core Network Updates & Protocol Milestones
2025: The Builder Engine In Action
2025 was a transformational year for builders of the @Coredao_Org ecosystem. Core Foundation didn’t just run dev events, it built a repeatable builder engine that turned education into shipping, and shipping into long-term ecosystem growth. The results were undeniable: 2,800% YoY growth in full-time developers and a #1 BTCfi chain ranking (per Electric Capital).
At the center was the Core Commit Program: a flagship 3-month mini-incubator program with 1:1 mentorship, hands-on technical support, and direct access to Core Ventures and its 100+ VC network. To go global, Core partnered with RiseIn, running meetups across 10 cities in 8 countries and onboarding 1,160 developers, then graduating the top 10 teams from 130+ applicants into a demo day with real investor exposure.
Throughout 2025, Core scaled the funnel everywhere: a 52-builder Hacker House in India, a 4-city Philippines bootcamp (209 devs), a $380K Global Gaming Hackathon (230+ builds), Campus Edition across 42 universities (2,800+ students), and the flagship $1.2M Core Connect Global Buildathon with 700+ registrations and 200+ builds, plus IRL meetups across 11 countries/12 cities.
2025 proved Core is where Bitcoin builders build. 2026 is where this engine compounds—deeper, more sustainable, and aligned with real adoption.
► Core Testnet (1115) Officially Decommissioned
The Core Testnet (1115) was officially decommissioned, making it no longer available for developers and node operators. All projects, developers, and node operators must migrate to Core Testnet2 (1114) to continue receiving support and to ensure access to the latest protocol features, tooling upgrades, and stable infrastructure.
Core Testnet2 is now the only supported Core test environment and will be the foundation for all upcoming development, testing, and network improvements. For more details on migrating to Core Testnet2, refer here.
Developer Programs, Events & DevRel Highlights
► Core DevRel Bi-Weekly Office Hours: Live Support for Builders on Core
The Core DevRel bi-weekly Office Hours continue to provide hands-on, real-time support for developers. 13 sessions have been completed so far, with the next session scheduled for 17th Feb 2026 at 2 PM UTC. These sessions offer real-time support and mentorship to help builders ship faster with fewer blockers. Register for the upcoming session now!
► Core’s BTC-FI Accelerator 2025 Cohort Halfway Through
The 2025 BTC-FI Accelerator cohort reached its halfway point in January. This 11-week program supports Bitcoin-native founders building across staking, yield, liquidity, and BTCFi primitives, further strengthening Core’s founder pipeline alongside DevRel efforts. The 2025 Cohort has completed more than half of its tenure, with the selected teams gearing up for the demo day!
This year’s exclusive 7-team cohort includes:
- Angmar Capital: market-neutral BTCFi investment strategies for institutions
- Mintware: referral-powered growth engine for crypto projects
- VeniceFi: unified BTC & stablecoin markets with a hybrid order book
- Dot Swap: Bitcoin-native DEX & credit layer for atomic swaps and L1 liquidity
- Helix Lab: AI-driven cross-chain yield optimizer
- Magni Finance: leveraged staking for BTC & LSTs
- Praxis Capital: performance-driven launchpad backed by BTC & CORE reserves
The Revenue Era Continues to Take Shape
► From narrative to mechanics
Core’s revenue roadmap became more concrete in January, reinforcing a shift away from short-term liquidity incentives toward sustainable usage-driven economics.
The focus is now on:
- repeatable on-chain activity
- fee generation through real product usage
- reinvestment loops that strengthen yields and long-term CORE demand
For builders, this means designing products that optimize for retention, composability, and real user behavior—not just TVL spikes.
► SatPay: Bringing BTCFi to Everyday Finance
Sat Pay, powered by Mobilum, brings a Bitcoin neobank experience to Core ecosystem. In one app, users can earn on Bitcoin, borrow against BTC or yield-bearing assets, and spend through a debit card-style flow, while continuing to earn yield in the background.
Momentum is already strong. More than 20,000 people have joined the SatPay waitlist, with early signups eligible for perks, BTC giveaways, and exclusive rewards. Join the waitlist today and be among the first to live on a Bitcoin Standard.
► SatPay Giveaway: 250k sats + Founders Card
To accelerate early adoption, Sat Pay is currently running a 250,000 sats giveaway and with an exclusive Founders Card for the earliest members, signaling an active go-to-market ramp ahead of broader rollout. Register and participate in the giveaway!
► New Staking Milestone: 42M CORE Staked on b14g Network
B14g Network reached a new milestone with an ATH of 42,000,000 CORE now staked. This is the revenue roadmap in motion: more CORE committed into staking rails strengthens the base layer for BTCFi products, deepens long-term alignment, and expands the surface area for real usage. More usage drives more fees, fees reinforce incentives, and incentives pull in more participation. In b14g’s words: “Builders building. Stakers committing. BTCFi compounding.”
CORE Utility Expansion: Spend CORE Across 5,000+ Brands
► CORE Goes Live on CoinsBee
A practical distribution win: CORE is now supported on CoinsBee, enabling spending across 5,000+ brands worldwide via gift cards and mobile top-ups. This is exactly the kind of utility endpoint that strengthens Core’s Bitcoin Power Grid thesis: yield and rewards become real spending power, which drives more everyday usage, more transactions, and more reasons to keep value flowing through CORE and Core-native rails.
Ecosystem Activations: Gaming Campaigns Driving On-Chain Activity
► Gunnies Season 1: Up to $3,000 Prize Pool
Gunnies Season 1 is now live, kicking off with a $3,000 prize pool and a Season 1 launch stream event hosted on Jan 16 at 2 PM UTC. Ahead of the season start, the leaderboard was reset, giving all players a clean slate to compete from day one. Players jump in and keep grinding!
► World of Dypians Treasure Hunt Is Live on Core: Up to $10,000 Rewards Over 120 Days
@worldofdypians brought its Treasure Hunt back on @Coredao_Org, giving players 120 days to explore the ecosystem and unlock a share of up to $10,000 in rewards. There are no shortcuts here. Keep playing, keep searching, and open the chest when you find it.
RWA Real Yield: Distribution Continues
► RWA Real Yield Distributed: FJC and MVA Apartments Holders Paid Out
ASX Capital confirmed it has completed its latest on-chain RWA yield distribution to FJC and MVA Apartments holders, marking another month of real yield paid directly on Core. Transaction proofs are live on Core Scan. Claim your FJC and MVA distributions now!
Institutional Signals: Yield Products Move Deeper Into TradFi Rails
► UK Approves Valour’s Core Powered Bitcoin Staking ETP for Retail on the London Stock Exchange
On 26 January 2026, DeFi Technologies announced that its subsidiary Valour received UK regulatory approval and began offering select yield-bearing crypto ETPs to UK retail investors via the London Stock Exchange, following approval of its UK base prospectuses by the Financial Conduct Authority.
The key BTC product is 1Valour Bitcoin Physical Staking (ISIN GB00BRBV3124), and it uses Core’s BTC staking infrastructure. Yield is generated by delegating BTC to a validator on the Core blockchain through self-custodial native Bitcoin staking, with rewards accrued directly into the ETP on an ongoing basis.
This marks a major milestone: regulated, retail-accessible Bitcoin yield built on Core’s staking rails, bringing BTCFi one step closer to mainstream brokerage distribution.
Keep Building on Core
January made the direction clearer: Core is pushing toward compounding loops; builders shipping, users transacting, fees becoming durable, and CORE increasingly acting as the access and coordination layer across BTCFi rails.
Whether you’re building DeFi protocols, BTCFi strategies, RWAs, payments integrations, or consumer apps:
Now’s the time to build on Bitcoin. Build on Core.