As the crypto market roars back to life in 2025, propelled by a new presidential administration and renewed investor optimism, Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions are experiencing a renaissance. Leading the charge is Stacks, a Bitcoin L2 that underwent significant technical upgrades in 2024 to dramatically improve its speed and finality. Now, with those enhancements firmly in place, Stacks co-founder and CEO Muneeb Ali is focused on a new mission: bringing Bitcoin to the masses.
Unleashing Bitcoin’s Potential with L2s
For Ali, the path to Bitcoin mass adoption lies in Layer 2 solutions. He believes that Bitcoin’s base layer will never offer the fast, cheap transactions necessary for widespread usage. That’s where L2s come in, providing the speed and usability of networks like Solana while still leveraging Bitcoin’s unparalleled security and decentralization.
Stacks’ Nakamoto upgrade in 2024 was a major step toward realizing this vision. The upgrade introduced “fast blocks” that significantly boosted transaction speeds. However, Ali acknowledges that the multi-phase rollout may have dampened some of the excitement. If he could do it again, he would opt for a singular release to maximize impact.
The Lightning Letdown
When it comes to Bitcoin L2s, the Lightning Network has long been the standard-bearer. Yet despite years in development, Lightning has struggled to gain significant traction. Ali doesn’t mince words, stating bluntly: “Lightning’s been around for a while, it has had some adoption, but not a ton. Let’s be real about it.”
He attributes Lightning’s lackluster adoption to its complex technology and difficult integration. In contrast, Ali believes the way forward is to encourage a multitude of Bitcoin L2 experiments and let the market decide which approaches resonate. Only through this trial and error can Bitcoin hope to achieve the seamless user experience of other chains.
The Trump Effect
Looking ahead, Ali sees the return of Donald Trump to the White House as a major boon for crypto. He highlights Trump’s appointment of David Sachs, a prominent crypto investor, as the crypto and AI czar. With an administration stacked with crypto advocates, Ali anticipates a 180-degree shift from the hostile regulatory environment of the past four years.
Even the prospect of states like Texas and Wyoming adopting Bitcoin reserves could send shockwaves through the industry. As for Bitcoin’s price, Ali remains a staunch believer in four-year market cycles, predicting the current cycle will peak in Q4 2025. He expects Bitcoin to reach at least $150,000 by year’s end, with $200,000 as his upper target.
The Road to 1 Billion Users
Ultimately, Ali’s ambitions extend far beyond price predictions and technical upgrades. His holy grail is to bring 1 billion users onto the Bitcoin blockchain. It’s a staggering goal, and one that he believes is impossible without L2s. The reason? Bitcoin’s base chain can’t even support 1 billion UTXOs (unspent transaction outputs), let alone 1 billion users.
“That’s something that probably doesn’t get talked about that much in our industry. People have made peace with onboarding people to Bitcoin through Coinbase and Binance and maybe through ETFs. But that’s not what Bitcoin is about. Bitcoin is about decentralization and self-custody and people being in control directly. We can’t forget that mission.”
– Muneeb Ali, co-founder and CEO of Stacks
This ethos of individual empowerment and decentralization is what drives Ali and the Stacks ecosystem forward. With technical prowess, singular focus, and an unwavering commitment to Bitcoin’s original vision, Stacks is poised to play a pivotal role in the next chapter of the Bitcoin story – the chapter where it becomes a global, unstoppable force for economic freedom.
