StarkWare CEO Eli Ben Sasson says he expects OP_CAT — a major upgrade to the Bitcoin network — to go live sometime within the next 12 months. 

Speaking to Cointelegraph at Devcon 2024 in Thailand, Ben-Sasson says the introduction of OP_CAT will enable a suite of new functionality on Bitcoin, including “covenants, ZK-rollups and layer 2 networks.”

Notably, the introduction of OP_CAT will see Starknet become the first layer-2 network to settle natively on both Bitcoin and Ethereum. 

https://cointelegraph.com/news/op-cat-may-go-live-bitcoin-within-12-months-starkware-eli-ben-sasson