Bitcoin faces a significant liquidity underutilization challenge in decentralized finance. According to data cited by Cardano founder and CEO Charles Hoskinson, between 83% and 95% of Bitcoin's $1.6 trillion in deposited DeFi liquidity remains unused across major networks at any given time. Less than 1% of circulating Bitcoin participates in DeFi protocols, compared to 10% to 15% of Ethereum's supply deployed in DeFi applications.
The core issue stems from Bitcoin's lack of a programmable, trust-minimized financial infrastructure. This prevents holders from deploying idle Bitcoin into financial applications such as staking, liquidity provision, and lending without surrendering control of their assets.
Pogun Development Underway
Hoskinson announced that Cardano is developing Pogun, a cross-chain liquidity platform designed to address this problem. The project, announced in May, has already attracted $600 million in funding commitments.
According to Hoskinson, completing the platform requires several critical activities, including the Leios scalability protocol upgrade and a compatible hard fork enhancement. With development ongoing, full deployment is expected in Q4 2026 or early 2027.
Platform Capabilities and Timeline
Pogun is being developed in three phases, with progressive rollouts scheduled throughout the year. These phases include enabling Bitcoin yield earning, lending capability, and trust-minimized bridging.
The platform will allow Bitcoin assets to operate and be utilized not only on Cardano but across multiple blockchain networks simultaneously through programmable liquidity primitives.
