Bitcoin

The largest crypto asset in existence today is Bitcoin, with a total market cap of roughly $1.0 trillion. Historically, Bitcoin has remained mostly idle and in isolation on the Bitcoin blockchain as it lacks programmability and is viewed as a store of value rather than a medium of exchange. Additionally, since Bitcoin is a Proof-of-Work blockchain secured by work rather than capital, most of the circulating supply making up this market cap has no native use case other than the store of value. As a result, hodlers only benefit from price appreciation, and miss out on the benefits of cash flow, or yield.

Given the recent approval of Bitcoin ETFs, institutions and traditional capital allocators now have more options to invest in Bitcoin. Institutions, however, typically have yield requirements, which historically have not been widely available to BTC hodlers, or have been dismissed as too risky.

While there are some yield generating activities currently available to Bitcoiners, they typically require utilizing bridges (most problematic attack vector in crypto), or centralized custodians such as wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) to access DeFi opportunities on proof-of-stake chains.

In summary, Bitcoin is digital capital that can (and should) be put to use.