Charms Brings Bitcoin to Cardano
Charms protocol now mints native EBTC on Cardano — trustless Bitcoin participation in Cardano DeFi using recursive ZK proofs, without bridges or custodians — and the first Charms dApp, Cast, launches on Bitcoin tomorrow with 23 teams already building. That creates a new vector for Bitcoin liquidity to flow into Cardano DEXs and lending markets. (youtu.be)
Charms’ technical whitepaper and docs publish a full protocol spec and developer guides for building cross‑UTXO “charms” and recursive ZK verification, including a CLI and examples for app workflows. (charms.dev). The project traces to BitcoinOS (BOS), which positioned Charms as a metaprotocol to issue programmable native tokens on Bitcoin and other UTXO chains without custodial bridges. (bitcoinos.build). Cardano’s recent Plutus V3 / CIP work exposing BLS12‑381 pairing primitives and related verifier optimizations is cited as the on‑chain capability that enables efficient recursive proof checks for CNT deployment on Cardano. (CIP‑0381, IOG blog). CharmsDev’s public GitHub shows active development across ~21 repositories (including charms-cardano and cast‑releases) and a v1 protocol release that added a zkVM upgrade and new CLI commands for wallet listing and “cast” operations. ( ). Charms’ Cast DEX is listed on the project site as a decentralized orderbook exchange built for Charms flows, and CharmsDev published a cast‑releases repository and release artifacts ahead of the reported mainnet debut on March 25, 2026. ( Learn Cardano Mar 24, 2026). Learn Cardano’s coverage cites a recent Pyth builderfest with “23 teams and 100+ developers” working on integrations and notes related Cardano DeFi launches—such as Strike V2 offering BTC perpetuals up to 25x leverage—that create concrete on‑ramps for Bitcoin liquidity to interact with Cardano markets once Charms/CAST are live. (Learn Cardano video/transcript).
