Last week, the Stacks Treasury Committee held its Q1 2026 quarterly meeting to discuss what comes next for the BTC on-chain economy. Over the last few months, the Stacks ecosystem has hit crucial milestones like the launches of Dual Stacking and USDCx, solidifying our position as the leading Bitcoin L2. As stewards of the ecosystem’s treasury, the Stacks Endowment’s mandate is to ensure this innovation is backed by fiscal discipline and best practices that outlast any market cycle.

We're building to last

The Stacks Endowment is in a stable position. At the December 2025 meeting, the TC approved an annual budget of $26 million and actual spend has tracked consistently to date. At the time of the Q1 meeting, total liquidity was approximately $25 million USD, comprising digital assets (STX, BTC, and stablecoins) and cash on hand.

As part of our financial planning, our target is to always maintain at least 24 months of runway for whatever the expected upcoming market conditions are, based solely on the STX that we’ll have minted and in our possession over that period. Based on that target and the fact that we could be looking at a crypto (and general economic) bear market that goes lower for longer, the Treasury Committee aligned on reducing annualized spending by $7 million USD.

Most importantly, while we’re making changes and being more careful about our spend during this time, we are still resourcing all of the critical path items that will make Stacks the leading bitcoin layer, including Bitcoin Staking, 100x the chain capacity, and growing our brand and marketing presence with a new CMO.

Maxmizing Capital Efficiency

To remain lean, we are shifting focus toward maximum capital efficiency.

• Optimizing DeFi: Reducing spending in liquidity provider (LP) capital for areas not yielding the necessary strategic returns. Additionally, the Endowment has taken out lines of credit at favourable rates from mission aligned counterparties to reduce near term STX sell pressure and we are managing the treasury with a multi-year horizon in mind.
• Structural Integration: Finalizing the streamlining of core workstreams between the Foundation and Labs. This includes the integration of Stacks Asia into the Labs core team to create a unified global strategy.

Organizational Updates

We trust each organization within the ecosystem to make the critical decisions necessary to align with these fiscal recommendations:

• Hiring Focus (CMO): Stacks Labs is onboarding a fractional CMO to support the team and bring expertise for upcoming product launches as we continue to build. The community will have the opportunity to further engage in the coming weeks!
• Hiring Focus (CIO): We are delaying the hire of a Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at the Stacks Endowment. This is a role we want to fill with the right person under the right conditions, and we'd rather wait than move too quickly. In the interim, the Endowment's directors will continue to provide guidance on treasury matters.
• Operational Streamlining: Stacks Labs is currently streamlining to reduce overhead, which includes a difficult but necessary workforce reduction to ensure every dollar is optimized for the mission.
• Grants Program: The grants program remains unchanged and focused on the builders contributing to Stacks' next chapter. Q1 Grant applications are under review and will be announced at the end of Q1.

The Next Chapter

The vision is straightforward: Stacks is where Bitcoin grows. More specifically, Stacks is Bitcoin's missing layer, providing the programmability and yield infrastructure that L1 BTC lacks, meeting Bitcoiners where they are without compromising on custody or sovereignty. The narrative being built alongside the SIP is equally clear: STX is the asset you hold to earn yield on your Bitcoin.

Among Stacks Labs, and the Treasury Committee, and longtime contributors, there is alignment around Bitcoin Staking as the next primary focus for the Stacks Labs team in 2026.  We're teaming up to bring a series of roadmap sessions for any community members who want to contribute to the Bitcoin Staking discussion or any of the workstreams lined up to follow.

Feedback in these calls directly impacts what the TC discusses, so attendance is encouraged. While not exhaustive or written in stone, these other key known roadmap workstreams include:

• Maximizing throughput: 100x chain capacity is the parallel infrastructure investment. The team is working on enhanced scaling and throughput via Clarity WASM, continuous improvements to core blockchain mechanics, and quality of life improvements for builders. The goal is for Stacks to process millions of daily transactions.
• Developer experience: Clarity 5 is in progress, and builder tooling is being actively improved across the stack: Clarinet toolchain, Stacks.js, mobile libraries (Kotlin and Swift), Extended API, and Chainhooks. The goal is developer experience on par with top L1s and L2s.
• AI agent first: We’re adding better hooks and documentation to ensure ai agents can interact and use stacks as easily as humans can
• Fast and private payments: There’s still a need for fast, cheap, and private Bitcoin payments and we’re mapping out how Stacks can deliver that.

Please read this post for more information and to sign up for a session.

The Path Forward

Tens of billions of dollars in Bitcoin capital are actively seeking a productive home, and Stacks is the only project with the on-chain history, regulatory standing, and technical infrastructure to capture it. We have been building toward this moment for years, and we are closer than we have ever been.

We know this period is not easy for everyone in the community. Tighter budgets, different timelines, and a market that hasn't rewarded the work yet. We see it, and we feel it too. But we are making these adjustments from a position of genuine conviction. We believe the next major chapter for Bitcoin happens on Stacks, and we are doing everything in our power to make sure we are here, fully resourced and ready, when it does.