Surge

Surge is a Bitcoin-native credit protocol that lets you borrow stablecoins against your BTC without giving up custody. Your Bitcoin stays locked in a Taproot vault on the Bitcoin blockchain, while a distributed network of independent signers—not a single company—manages the collateral. The system uses smart contracts on an EVM chain to handle loans, interest rates, and liquidations.

Its core strength is that it removes the need for bridges or wrapped tokens, which are common attack points in crypto. By keeping BTC on its native chain and using threshold signatures, Surge reduces the risk of hacks and centralized failure. The protocol is also modular: other teams can build lending or savings products on top of it, making it a shared infrastructure layer rather than a closed app.

The problem it solves is simple: Bitcoin holders have few safe, non-custodial ways to get liquidity without selling. Surge offers a path to borrow against BTC while staying fully on-chain and transparent. For lenders, it provides yield backed by real Bitcoin collateral.

In the past six months (March–September 2026), Surge launched its mainnet, onboarded several early lending partners, and saw its total value locked grow to roughly $50 million. It also introduced a new vault version with lower fees and faster withdrawals. However, the protocol faced criticism after a minor bug in its liquidation oracle caused a brief mispricing event in July, which was resolved without user losses but raised questions about oracle robustness. Overall, it remains a promising but still young player in the Bitcoin DeFi space.