Bitcoin fever is sweeping the corporate world. A growing number of publicly listed companies are transforming into Bitcoin treasury vehicles, deploying capital, and raising funds to grow their BTC holdings.
It began with Michael Saylor’s Strategy and has since turned into a near-obsession as Bitcoin gains traction as a potential global reserve asset. Today, public companies collectively hold 858,850 BTC, while private companies hold 421,641 BTC, a clear signal that the Bitcoin treasury trend is accelerating across both corporate and private sectors.
Now that the accumulation playbook is widely adopted, one question looms: What comes next?
“Bitcoin treasury companies will face increased pressure to differentiate beyond simple accumulation strategies as the market becomes increasingly crowded,” noted Rich Rines, Initial Contributor at Core DAO.
According to Rines, the most competitive firms going forward will be those that “find ways to generate meaningful yield on their Bitcoin holdings without compromising on security or liquidity.”
Core DAO is an organization focused on transforming idle BTC into a yield-generating asset through self-custodial Bitcoin staking.
The importance of self-custodial yield generation is already being recognized by hardware wallets (HW) manufacturers, which are critical in protecting digital assets from online threats. HW manufacturers, as Rines shares, are “racing to integrate Bitcoin staking capabilities directly into their devices.”
Self-custodial yield generation is “the next frontier for institutional and retail Bitcoin holders alike,” and the growing interest from cold wallet providers will be “crucial for the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin productivity strategies,” he said.
Besides security, another critical piece of infrastructure important for BTC holders is stablecoins, whose convergence with Bitcoin financial rails will offer them new opportunities to access dollar-denominated liquidity without selling underlying assets.
This should “accelerate dramatically,” with Rines stating that it will then “unlock sophisticated financial strategies previously available only in traditional finance.”
Already, we can see great interest among BTC holders, with over half a billion in Bitcoin currently staked with the Core network, while 75% of the Bitcoin network’s hash rate is participating in securing Core.
Core is a high-performance PoS layer for Bitcoin that also powers a fully EVM-compatible BTCFi ecosystem aimed at bringing decentralized finance to the Bitcoin network.
BTCFi, or Bitcoin DeFi, comprises projects that enable Bitcoin holders to engage in DeFi activities such as lending, borrowing, staking, yield farming, trading, and more.
All these activities in BTCFi are driven by stablecoins, cross-chain bridges, scalable L2 networks, yield opportunities, and security, which are the key elements of this decentralized finance space.
According to Rines, yield-bearing Bitcoin collateral will be another crucial component of DeFi, enabling Bitcoin holders to access liquidity and earn returns without sacrificing their exposure to the digital asset’s long-term appreciation potential. “This will fundamentally change how institutions think about Bitcoin treasury management,” he added.
This extends the utility of Bitcoin beyond just a store of value. The $2 trillion market cap cryptocurrency is evolving into what Rines describes as “the productive centerpiece of an active on-chain economy.” This will enable the digital asset to work productively while maintaining its fundamental monetary properties, he noted.
And this is just the beginning. With growing institutional adoption and strong price expectations, the BTCFi ecosystem is poised for rapid expansion.
“Enhanced revenue opportunities for builders on Bitcoin-supporting chains will drive a wave of innovation in decentralized applications, creating a virtuous cycle where better applications attract more users and capital, which in turn attracts more builders and innovation,” remarked Rines.
As developers recognize these revenue opportunities, the applications are expected to see “explosive growth”, leading to active and incentivized Bitcoin-centric development. The total value locked in BTCFi protocols currently stands above $6 billion, a 10-fold increase from a year ago, reflecting strong demand and adoption.
Attention and capital are already flowing into Bitcoin in abundance, add security and programmable functionality to it, and the ecosystem is bound to “attract top-tier talent.”
Overall, increased development activity, matured and structured products, novel financial strategies, and institutional-grade risk management will help Bitcoin productivity reach critical mass. “This infrastructure maturation will accelerate the transition from Bitcoin as a passive asset to Bitcoin as the foundation of a productive financial ecosystem,” said Rines.
