[PRESS RELEASE – New York, New York, March 27th, 2025]

Zeus Network announced the official launch of APOLLO, its flagship decentralized application and the first on-chain Bitcoin exchange built on Solana. Alongside APOLLO, Zeus Network has introduced zBTC, the first fully permissionless Bitcoin asset on Solana. Unlocking cross-chain Bitcoin liquidity, Bitcoin holders can now access Solana’s DeFi ecosystem—without reliance on centralized wrapped solutions.

APOLLO allows users to lock native BTC and mint zBTC at a 1:1 ratio directly on Solana, adding Bitcoin liquidity in a fully decentralized, non-custodial environment. Traditional wrapped Bitcoin models rely on centralized custodians and opaque systems, but APOLLO and zBTC deliver a trustless, transparent experience with no KYC requirements or custodial risks. The platform has demonstrated significant traction during the private mainnet phase, recording over $40 million in on-chain volume and successfully minting 50 zBTC ahead of launch.

The launch of APOLLO ushers in Bitcoin Finance—or BTCFi—on Solana, with a suite of decentralized financial services that leverage Bitcoin’s unmatched liquidity and security to integrate with modern DeFi infrastructure. Through zBTC, Bitcoin holders can now participate in a multitude of DeFi strategies across Solana, including trading zBTC on Jupiter, providing liquidity on Meteora, HawkFi, and Raydium. Vault strategies for yield optimization—such as depositing zBTC on Drift and Neutral Trade—are also set to launch in the near future.

Zeus Network also provides on-chain visibility into Bitcoin reserves through ZeusScan, a custom-built Proof of Reserves system that ensures every BTC transaction remains fully auditable. This tool reinforces user confidence and maintains the integrity of APOLLO’s trustless architecture.

In the coming months, Zeus Network plans to introduce new features that further modularize Bitcoin liquidity. APOLLO will soon enable users to swap between zBTC, cbBTC, and wBTC and withdraw any version back to native Bitcoin—making it easier than ever to manage Bitcoin positions across protocols and formats. This modular framework will enhance market efficiency and give users more flexibility and control. In addition, users will be able to engage in borrowing and lending activities on Drift and Save Finance, and many more.

Zeus Network’s future priorities include onboarding institutional liquidity partners, integrating more UTXO-based assets such as DOGE, LTC, KAS, and evolving ZPL-assets to strengthen liquidity coverage. The launch of more Bitcoin-native applications on Solana are also in the works, as Zeus continues to develop BTCFi on Solana.

About Zeus Network

Zeus Network is a multi-chain layer built on the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), enabling permissionless interoperability between Bitcoin and major blockchain ecosystems. It seamlessly integrates liquidity from Bitcoin and other UTXO-based blockchains such as Litecoin, Dogecoin, and Kaspa into the Solana ecosystem, creating secure, scalable cross-chain interactions.

Through its flagship dApp, APOLLO, Zeus Network demonstrates the decentralized, trustless integration of native Bitcoin via a lock-mint mechanism, empowering the Solana-native asset, zBTC, to unlock Bitcoin finance (BTCFi) opportunities on Solana.

Website | Zeus on X |APOLLO | Discord | Docs

Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent price movements have raised speculations about the possible end of the bull market and the onset of a bear season. Investors are wondering if the leading digital asset is entering a period of continued downturn and sideways movement, but analysts still insist there is hope.

The on-chain analyst and bitcoin insights provider IT Tech believes data from previous market cycles could help predict the future of this bull market and reveal if BTC has peaked for the season. The firm focused on bitcoin’s transaction volume across previous bull and bear cycles.

Historical Bitcoin Trends

During the bull cycle of 2016-2017, when BTC rallied to roughly $20,000, the market witnessed rising activity in large transactions, which are transfers greater than $1 million. As bitcoin’s price climbed, large investors accumulated heavily, driving the market to new highs.

By the bear market of 2018-2019, institutional activity had dwindled; however, investors were still accumulating at a slower pace while BTC was consolidating. On the other hand, smaller investors gradually stepped in to buy the dip.

Then came the bull run of 2020-2021, during which institutional adoption drove BTC to $69,000. IT Tech revealed that the euphoria at the time was driven by massive transaction volumes in the >$1 million range, indicating that the market saw significant interest from big players.

More Room for Growth

Following the 2022 crash, BTC consolidated around $20,000. Large investors were still accumulating; however, transaction volumes hovered below the peaks seen in 2020 and 2021.

Analyzing data in the current cycle, IT Tech noted the emergence of new activity in low-value transactions, that is, those between $0 – $1 and $100 – $1,000. Smaller BTC investors are now increasingly active, highlighting a season of retail fear of missing out (FOMO).

While small investors continue to participate in the market, trading volumes for larger transactions have yet to reach levels seen in previous bull cycles. IT Tech said this suggests that whales and institutions are still quietly accumulating BTC. It also means that the market is yet to see the euphoric phase of this bull cycle.

According to IT Tech, an explosive growth in the >$1 million range could signal the beginning of market euphoria. Until that happens, the current level of accumulation indicates that the market still has room for growth.

Nevertheless, the on-chain analyst insists that mid-sized transactions ($1,000 – $10,000) are just as important in this cycle because an increase in this range often comes before a broader market rally.

The social media buzz around Solana (SOL) has reportedly reached a fever pitch, buoyed by GameStop’s $1.3 billion Bitcoin (BTC) play and BlackRock’s recent expansion onto the blockchain.

This surge in institutional interest has fueled overwhelmingly positive sentiment toward Solana, with Santiment reporting a near-record high 18:1 positive-to-negative sentiment ratio.

Institutional Backing Boosts Solana’s Appeal

In a March 26 post on X, Santiment noted:

“With news that institutions like GameStop and BlackRock are integrating Bitcoin and launching yield-bearing tokenized treasury funds on Solana, crypto’s #5 market cap asset is seeing an astounding level of bullish sentiment pouring in on social media.”

According to the analytics platform, the high level of positivity is driven by the belief that institutional backing could speed up Solana’s adoption and strengthen its market position.

Many see BlackRock’s decision to integrate Solana into its tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, as a major endorsement of the blockchain’s capabilities. Since its launch in March 2024, BUIDL has grown to $1.7 billion, commanding the tokenized U.S. treasuries market and outpacing rivals like Ondo and Franklin Templeton.

GameStop has also dipped its feet into the crypto pool, announcing plans to raise $1.3 billion to buy Bitcoin. The move mirrors Strategy’s aggressive BTC accumulation, further validating digital assets as institutional-grade collateral.

Meme Coin Frenzy Contributes to Solana’s Growth

Apart from institutional influence, Solana’s meme coin space seems to have been revitalized after a brief lull partly occasioned by the LIBRA debacle, in which investors lost more than $250 million after insiders cashed out early, causing the token’s value to plummet 85%.

Pump.fun, which recently launched a native decentralized exchange (DEX) to compete with Raydium, recorded more than 34,000 meme coin launches on March 24, dwarfing the 20,190 created at the beginning of the month.

The sparkling performance of the newly launched meme coin Ghiblification (GHIBLI) has further brightened the space. Inspired by a wave of Studio Ghibli-style images shared by ChatGPT users on social media, the token shot up by an eye-popping 35,000% at one point since going live.

Meanwhile, SOL’s price has responded positively to the changing sentiment. The asset was trading at $138.60 at the time of this writing, which, despite a 4.4% pullback in the last 24 hours, reflects a 3.8% gain over the past week.

As things stand, SOL is outperforming both BTC and the broader crypto market, with the number one cryptocurrency by market cap up just 2% in seven days.