MERL is the token of Merlin Chain, a Bitcoin Layer 2 network. It traded at about $0.0262 on 25 October 2026 (CoinGecko, 10:35 UTC). That is about 11% above its CoinGecko daily price of $0.0235 on 8 September 2026, the date of this article's first version. It is still 98.2% below its all-time high of $1.45, set on 19 April 2024. Use of the network has not recovered with the price. DefiLlama puts Merlin Chain's total value locked (TVL) at about $8.9 million on 24 October 2026. Its peak was about $529 million on 5 May 2024. The latest change for MERL is in the market data. There has been no dated project announcement since early September.
MERL at a glance
| Metric | 8 Sep 2026 | 25 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Price (USD) | $0.02354 (CoinGecko daily) | $0.02617 |
| Market cap | $32.7M | $37.4M |
| 24h volume, all venues | $1.85M | $1.94M |
| Merlin Chain TVL (DefiLlama) | $8.32M | $8.92M (24 Oct) |
Other CoinGecko data as of 25 October 2026:
- Market cap rank: #549.
- Change: +1.5% over seven days, -8.9% over 30 days and -93.3% over one year.
- All-time low: $0.01572 on 26 June 2026. The current price is about 66% above it.
- All-time high: $1.45 on 19 April 2024. Getting back there would take roughly a 55x rise from $0.0262.
What changed since 8 September
- Price and market cap: both rose about 11–14%, but the 30-day trend has turned negative again.
- TVL: roughly flat, at $8–9 million. The price moved, but the amount of capital on the chain barely changed.
What Merlin Chain is
Merlin's documentation calls it "a Bitcoin Layer 2 solution". It lists four components: a ZK-Rollup network, a decentralised oracle network, data availability, and on-chain BTC fraud-proof modules. The documentation does not explain how these parts fit together. Merlin launched in January 2024. It came out of Bitmap Technology, which Jeff Yin founded.
Two practical points from the official docs:
- Gas is paid in BTC. Users bring BTC onto the chain through the official bridge to pay network fees.
- MERL can also pay gas in the account-abstraction (AA) wallet. You choose MERL as the gas token when you confirm a transfer or swap.
The April 2024 launch release says MERL holders can vote on governance proposals and stake tokens to help secure the network. It also says MERL serves as liquidity and collateral in the ecosystem. The release was sponsored, so these are the issuer's own claims.
How far has MERL moved between two prices?
Enter a starting price and an ending price for MERL to see the percentage change between them, using the article's dated prices or your own.
| Starting MERL price | Ending MERL price | Change from the starting price to the ending price |
|---|---|---|
| 0.02354 USD | 0.02617 USD | 11.2 % |
| 0.01572 USD | 0.02617 USD | 66.5 % |
| 0.02617 USD | 1.45 USD | 5,440.7 % |
- Both prices are your inputs; the defaults and examples use the article's CoinGecko figures: $0.02354 on 8 September 2026, $0.02617 on 25 October 2026, the all-time low of $0.01572 and the all-time high of $1.45.
- A positive result is a rise from the starting price; a negative result is a fall. Market prices change constantly, so check the timestamp of any price you enter.
This only computes the percentage change between two prices you enter: it leaves out fees, tax and token unlocks, and says nothing about where MERL's price or Merlin Chain's TVL will go next.
Supply and unlocks
MERL has a fixed supply of 2.1 billion tokens. Merlin's tokenomics page says they are released over four years from the token generation event (TGE). CoinGecko showed 1.43 billion MERL circulating on 25 October 2026, about 68% of the total.
| Allocation | Share | Vesting (per Merlin docs) |
|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem | 40.00% | No initial unlock, released over 48 months |
| Merlin's Seal participants | 20.00% | 50% at TGE, the rest over 5 months |
| Community | 16.57% | No initial unlock, released over 48 months |
| Private investors | 15.23% | Round A: 6-month cliff, then 18 months. Round B: 12-month cliff, then 36 months |
| Team | 4.20% | Released over 24 months after a cliff of unstated length |
| Advisors | 3.00% | Released over 30 months after a cliff of unstated length |
| Public sale | 1.00% | 50% at TGE, the rest over 5 months |
The tokenomics page gives no calendar dates. The launch release says trading opened on 19 April 2024. If the four-year schedule started then, the ecosystem, community and Round B allocations would keep releasing until about April 2028. That end date is an estimate, not a date the project has published. In practice, about a third of the supply is not yet circulating, so the unlock schedule matters as much as the price.
How to read these numbers
- Market cap is about $37 million and TVL about $9 million. At these levels, one large holder or one protocol can move either figure noticeably.
- TVL is down about 98% from its peak, close to the token's fall from its high. That points to lower demand for the chain itself, not only weaker sentiment around the token.
- Supply figures differ between price sites. Some still show old supply or price data for MERL, so check the timestamp before comparing.
Crypto assets are volatile and you can lose your capital. Nothing here is investment advice.
