Lombard stated it plans to launch Bitcoin Smart Accounts, designed to enable Bitcoin held in institutional custody to be used as onchain collateral with out shifting the asset or transferring management to a 3rd celebration.
In accordance to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, following a launch this quarter, custodied Bitcoin will probably be acknowledged onchain by a receipt token, BTC.b, enabling establishments to entry lending and liquidity venues whereas retaining authorized possession and current custody preparations.
Lombard stated the framework targets asset managers, company treasuries and different institutional holders whose Bitcoin (BTC) stays idle in certified custody. Pilots are underway with choose institutional purchasers, although Lombard has not disclosed buyer names or transaction volumes.
Bitcoin doesn’t natively supply yield, a constraint that has stored huge quantities of the token idle in contrast to proof-of-stake networks. That dynamic is starting to shift as a rising set of protocols search to put custodied Bitcoin to work onchain.
Looking for to unstick Bitcoin
Lombard co-founder Jacob Phillips informed Cointelegraph that decentralized exchanges now account for a significant share of crypto buying and selling exercise, with about half of lending and borrowing already going down onchain. Phillips stated:
However Bitcoin has been caught. You’ve acquired roughly $1.4 trillion in BTC sitting idle, with solely about $40 billion lively in DeFi. Till now, in case you wished to put your Bitcoin to work onchain, you had to wrap it or transfer it into centralized companies, which meant giving up the custody safety institutional holders require. That is the issue we’re fixing.
Morpho will function the preliminary liquidity associate, with extra onchain protocols and custodian integrations anticipated over time.
Phillips stated Morpho was chosen for its institutional-focused lending infrastructure and expertise supporting remoted Bitcoin-backed lending, including that Bitcoin Smart Accounts are designed as open infrastructure moderately than a closed integration, permitting Lombard to assist extra DeFi protocols as demand emerges.
Based in 2024, Lombard develops Bitcoin-focused onchain infrastructure and tokenized belongings, together with LBTC and BTC.b, designed to allow Bitcoin to be utilized in DeFi with out leaving custody, in accordance to the corporate.
Associated: Bitwise to launch onchain vaults via Morpho
New merchandise goal to put idle Bitcoin to work
On Might 1, US-based crypto alternate Coinbase launched the Coinbase Bitcoin Yield Fund, focusing on non-US institutional traders with an anticipated annual web return of 4% to 8% on Bitcoin holdings.
Just a few months later, Solv Protocol launched a structured yield vault for institutional traders, designed to deploy idle Bitcoin throughout a number of yield methods spanning decentralized finance, centralized finance and conventional markets. Solv’s BTC+ vault consists of methods corresponding to protocol staking, foundation arbitrage and publicity to tokenized real-world belongings.
On Feb. 4, institutional crypto infrastructure supplier Fireblocks said it would integrate Stacks to give institutional purchasers entry to Bitcoin-based lending and yield.
Journal: Bitcoin’s ‘biggest bull catalyst’ would be Saylor’s liquidation: Santiment founder
Cointelegraph by Nate Kostar Lombard to Launch Bitcoin Smart Accounts for Institutions cointelegraph.com 2026-02-11 14:00:00
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