Bitcoin Core development activity to rebound significantly in 2025, ending years of decline

BlockBeats News, January 5, 2025 — The Bitcoin development ecosystem has seen a significant revival, with Bitcoin Core development activity rising sharply and ending the prolonged stagnation since the late 2010s. Data shows that discussions on the Bitcoin development mailing list have increased by about 60% year-on-year, becoming a key signal of the development rebound; a total of 135 independent code contributors participated in protocol optimization throughout the year, marking a clear expansion in the developer base.

On the technical front, 2025 saw the completion of the first-ever third-party security audit in Bitcoin’s history. This audit was conducted by cybersecurity firm Quarkslab and funded by the non-profit organization Brink, focusing on the peer-to-peer network layer. The conclusion stated that the codebase is “mature and thoroughly tested,” with no critical or high-risk vulnerabilities found. This result has significantly boosted the confidence of institutional and sovereign-level participants in Bitcoin’s infrastructure.

In addition, the Bitcoin Core v30 release introduced mempool policy updates, including adjustments to OP_RETURN data limits, driving the development of native Bitcoin applications and sparking widespread discussion about the long-term impact of on-chain data storage.

In terms of funding support, 2025 saw a marked strengthening of institutionalized funding for open-source Bitcoin development. The funding pools of organizations such as Brink, Btrust, and OpenSats have expanded, and some spot Bitcoin ETF issuers have begun to formally “give back” to the underlying infrastructure. Among them, VanEck continues to pledge to donate 5% of ETF profits to support development. This change means that core maintainers are no longer highly dependent on a volunteer model.

Entering 2026, development priorities have shifted to Lightning Network scalability and the privacy-enhancing Silent Payments. Analysts believe that Bitcoin is evolving from a “static store of value” into a financial infrastructure technology platform with continuous evolution capabilities.