Bitcoin L2 Merlin Chain has lost $1.7 billion since June
Although the marketing gimmick worked for a while, investors are starting to realize that so-called layer 2 scaling solutions are, in effect, just new blockchains. Merlin’s blockchain, which once billed itself as the largest ‘Bitcoin layer 2,’ has lost 63% of its assets since July 1 according to DefiLlama data — far more volatile than Bitcoin’s actual blockchain, which has lost just 5%. Worse, MerlinSwap, the most popular exchange for assets on this chain, lost a devastating 88% of its total value locked (TVL) over the same period. Merlin has at least two proprietary tokens, MERL and MP. Unfortunately, many investors have lost confidence in those assets, as well. MERL is down 84% from its all-time high , and MP has shed 90%. Merlin has morphed and changed the names of its ecosystem constituents since it launched its Mainnet in February 2024. It now claims that the TVL of Merlin Seal — a nebulously defined figure that includes double-counted, leveraged, or price-intercon...