BitVMX Protocol Enables Bridging Bitcoin Ordinals to Cardano

Cardano has made significant strides in establishing itself as a platform for Bitcoin DeFi (BTCFi), enabling the transfer of Ordinals to its main network.

The transfer was accomplished through a transaction between Bitcoin and Cardano via BitVMX, an interoperability protocol that utilizes the BitVM programming language.

This development was presented by Input | Output (IO), the organization behind Cardano’s layer 1, during the Bitcoin 2025 conference held in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

According to IO, the establishment of this bridge serves as a “preview of what is to come.” The long-term goal is to achieve full integration between Bitcoin and Cardano, thereby offering DeFi services for Bitcoin users and tapping into substantial liquidity derived from Bitcoin holdings.

To facilitate this integration, IO has introduced the “Cardinal” protocol, a blend of Cardano and Ordinals, which leverages BitVMX to assign Bitcoin-based assets to addresses on the Cardano blockchain.

Introduced in early 2023, the Ordinals protocol allows data to be inscribed onto individual satoshis, the smallest unit of Bitcoin, making each one distinct and traceable. This effectively creates a version of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Bitcoin.