Lombard collaborates with Bitwise to activate $500 billion in institutional custody of BTC for yield and collateralized lending
Lombard and Bitwise Asset Management announced a partnership at the Digital Asset Summit in New York, offering a solution for institutions to earn yields and collateralize BTC lending without moving assets out of custody, targeting the scale of BTC assets under institutional custody.
Bitwise will develop yield strategies that combine DeFi lending with tokenized real-world assets, while the decentralized lending protocol Morpho will provide the infrastructure for BTC collateralized lending. The platform uses Bitcoin-native tools such as partially signed transactions and time locks to verify collateral, allowing positions to be represented on-chain without transferring or re-collateralizing the underlying assets.
Phillips stated that Bitcoin Smart Accounts can simultaneously reduce custody, cross-chain bridge, and counterparty risks. This solution is aimed at high-net-worth individuals, asset management firms, and corporate treasuries, with plans to launch in the second quarter of 2026 and will add more custodians and protocols to expand coverage.
Lombard estimates that approximately $500 billion in BTC is under institutional custody; DefiLlama data shows that the total locked value of BTC in DeFi is about $2.93 billion, with a market cap of approximately $1.4 trillion; as of the time of writing, Babylon Protocol's total locked value is about $2.8 billion, and Lombard's is approximately $744 million.
You may also like
Do you want to buy CRCL?
Wosh: Inflation has cooled in recent weeks, AI is reshaping the economy, and forward guidance has lost its necessity
The most secretive AI winner
Looking at Stripe's ambitions and the future of stablecoins from OUSD
From Pump.fun to Collector Crypt: Has Solana's income throne changed hands?
Dan Bin's latest speech: Don't miss out on a great era
Robinhood launches its own blockchain, no longer wanting to be a tenant on others' chains
Why Tokenized Stocks Are Booming in 2026 While Crypto Is Still Struggling
Former ByteDance employee's account: How I started with two Pinduoduo hard drives and made six times the profit with Seagate to achieve financial freedom?
MiCA reshuffle begins, Binance temporarily bids farewell to the EU
How does Gate redo "buying and selling stocks" from the cryptocurrency world to the stock market?
Visa and Mastercard join 140 giants to launch a new stablecoin, but the impact on the market landscape may still be limited
Circle CEO responds to OUSD's challenge: Stablecoins are a winner-takes-all business, and we will not slow down
Argentina vs Cape Verde: When a Record-Breaking Legend Meets an Unbreakable Underdog
WEEX exclusive pre-match analysis of Argentina vs Cape Verde, exploring Messi-led Argentina’s dominance and Cape Verde’s historic defensive breakout, with a breakdown of volatility, structure, and match dynamics.


