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Forge, the first Bittensor-native money market being built by Endure, has opened its public testnet, giving users their first hands-on look at how borrowing TAO against Alpha collateral will work ahead of mainnet.
The launch lets users connect an EVM wallet, claim testnet assets, supply TAO liquidity, post Alpha as collateral, and test the core borrowing flow in a live environment. It's the first public sandbox for a product trying to turn Bittensor’s subnet assets into usable onchain collateral instead of passive positions.
In this article, we'll explain the basics of Forge, how you can get involved in testnet (and what you can do), and why this matters for Bittensor.
What Is Forge?
Forge is being built as a lending market specifically for Bittensor users who want TAO liquidity without selling their Alpha tokens. Suppliers deposit TAO into the protocol and earn yield, while borrowers lock supported Alpha collateral and borrow TAO against it, preserving their exposure to the subnet asset while accessing liquidity elsewhere.
Endure describes the product as the first application powered by its decentralized risk-intelligence network on Bittensor’s SN30. More than half of Forge revenue is intended to go toward Endure Alpha buybacks over time.
Antonio Verrico
In using the protocol, borrowers deposit Alpha collateral into Forge and borrow TAO against it. On the other side of the market, TAO suppliers provide liquidity and earn a base yield plus additional borrower-paid interest when utilization rises.
Notably, Forge isn't just another EVM lending app. It's a Bittensor-native money market (underlying assets do not originate as generic ERC-20s), meaning TAO and Alpha live natively on Bittensor’s Substrate layer, and Forge’s collateral markets are designed around subnet-specific Alpha wrappers that interact with Bittensor’s staking system.
What Users Can Test Now
The public testnet is meant to familiarize users with the product before real capital is involved. According to Forge’s guide, users can:
- connect an EVM-compatible wallet configured for the Bittensor EVM devnet
- claim testnet TAO and testnet Alpha tokens from the available faucets
- supply TAO to the market and observe how the supplier side of the interface works
- deposit supported Alpha collateral and see how borrowing power is calculated
- borrow TAO against that collateral
- get comfortable with concepts like account health, liquidation thresholds, and protocol risk parameters
The testnet guide makes clear that these tokens have no real value and that the goal is experimentation. Endure is explicitly using the environment to gather feedback on how the product behaves in practice before mainnet launch.
Alpha Collateral, Not Stablecoins
Forge’s model centers on Alpha token collateral markets, with TAO as the borrowable asset. That means the core user action is not “deposit TAO and borrow stablecoins,” as in a traditional DeFi money market. It is “deposit Alpha and borrow TAO.”
Under the hood, Endure says this works through a contract-aware path in Bittensor’s staking precompile. A user approves a Forge market to move Alpha stake for a specific subnet and hotkey, the contract pulls that stake into a wrapper structure, and Forge records the collateral position inside the lending market. The key point is that the collateral is not some detached synthetic representation of Alpha created elsewhere. It is meant to be tied directly to native Bittensor stake custody and accounting, which is what gives Forge its claim to being Bittensor-native rather than merely Bittensor-adjacent.
That structure also matters for liquidations. If a position becomes undercollateralized, Forge is designed to liquidate against Alpha-backed collateral and settle the TAO debt side of the market. In other words, the product is not just importing a generic lending template. It is trying to build a money market around the actual mechanics of how Bittensor assets live and move.
Forge Is Also the Proving Ground for Endure Itself
Forge is not just a standalone DeFi product. It is also the first real test of Endure’s broader pitch that risk intelligence on Bittensor can be produced competitively and then used to manage live financial markets.
Endure’s stated model is to begin with manually configured parameters under a Guardian Multisig, then gradually integrate risk signals generated by the subnet as the network proves itself. In the long run, the idea is that collateral factors, liquidation thresholds, interest-rate curves, and other key risk settings should not be fixed by a static committee forever, but informed by a decentralized network of analysts competing to produce better risk intelligence. Forge is the first venue where those ideas can eventually be attached to real market outcomes.
That is a meaningful part of the story here. Forge gives Endure a live environment where risk opinions can eventually be tested against actual borrowing behavior, liquidations, liquidity conditions, and capital efficiency. Instead of risk analysis existing as a theoretical product, it gets tied to a market where being wrong has visible consequences.
A Milestone Worth Checking Out
This public testnet launch is an important step toward making Bittensor a more complete and liquid financial ecosystem. As we’ve seen in other blockchain ecosystems, money markets are foundational pieces of financial infrastructure, making it especially important to get Forge right.
That means testing matters. It takes real users putting the product through its paces, surfacing friction, and helping the team refine the market in the right direction.
If Forge succeeds, the benefits could extend well beyond a single protocol. More liquidity across the ecosystem means more flexibility for subnet participants, more utility for Alpha, and more fuel for builders across Bittensor.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. The information provided should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any digital asset, security, or investment strategy. Readers should conduct their own research and consult with a licensed financial professional before making any investment decisions. The publisher and its contributors are not responsible for any losses that may arise from reliance on the information presented.
