The Bitcoin development ecosystem will see a significant recovery in 2025, with activity increasing by 60% year-on-year.

In 2025, the Bitcoin development ecosystem experienced a significant revival, with Bitcoin Core development activity ending its long period of stagnation. Data shows that the volume of discussions on the Bitcoin development mailing list increased by about 60% year-on-year, with a total of 135 independent code contributors participating in protocol optimization throughout the year, expanding the developer base. On the technical side, 2025 saw the completion of the first third-party security audit in Bitcoin's history, conducted by Quarkslab and funded by Brink. The audit covered the peer-to-peer network layer and found no critical or high-risk vulnerabilities. The Bitcoin Core v30 release introduced mempool strategy updates, driving the development of native Bitcoin applications. In terms of funding support, organizations such as Brink and Btrust increased their sponsorship, and VanEck pledged to donate 5% of ETF profits to support development. Moving into 2026, the development focus shifted to Lightning Network scalability and enhancements to Silent Payments privacy.