Lombard (@Lombard_Finance): From the Bitcoin Track at DAS NYC: 9 Takeaways on Where Onchain Bitcoin is Headed.

From the Bitcoin Track at DAS NYC: 9 Takeaways on Where Onchain Bitcoin is Headed. Lombard was the official Bitcoin partner of Digital Asset Summit NYC. We hosted the Bitcoin Track, ran a booth on the networking floor, and co-hosted an invite-only dinner with Bitwise too. We also formally introduced Bitwise and Morpho as yield and liquidity partners for Bitcoin Smart Accounts which launch soon. Nine takeaways from the three days: 1. Bitcoin is productive capital. For years, Bitcoin sat in cold storage and did nothing. That era has ended. The conversation has shifted from "should we allocate to Bitcoin" to "how do we make the Bitcoin we already hold work harder." Accessing yield and liquidity aren't fringe topics anymore. They are the top priorities of every institutional allocator we spoke to this week, in that order. The irony? Most of the industry is still building for stablecoins. Very few are building for Bitcoin. That gap is Lombard’s opportunity. 2. Onchain is already winning. Most people just haven't noticed. Two-thirds of all crypto borrowing now happens onchain. Onchain spot Bitcoin volume is nearly on par with Coinbase. The shift didn't announce itself. It just happened. Watch Jacob’s full keynote “Bitcoin's Onchain State of the Union” on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMVOdLLNNAA When you give people the right product experience, they move. Hyperliquid proved it in perpetuals. The Coinbase x Morpho Bitcoin lending product proved it in credit. The pattern is consistent: nail the UX, and institutional-scale capital follows. Paul Frambot, co-founder and CEO of Morpho, put it plainly: "Once you can provide the UX that is on par with a Web2 experience, but benefit from Web3 as the back end, what you get is an open infrastructure that allows for much more efficient, much more competitive pricing, and much deeper liquidity because it's global liquidity.” Watch the full panel “From Store of Value to Productive Capital: Bitcoin's Place in DeFi” on YouTube. https://youtu.be/6ABojKb86tg 3. The institutional unlock is a trust problem, not a demand problem. Every major institution we speak to already has Bitcoin. They want yield. They want to borrow against it. What stops them isn't access. It's that participating in onchain finance has historically meant moving assets out of the custody setups they have trusted for years. Solving that is the whole ballgame. The infrastructure to solve it now exists, with Bitcoin Smart Accounts. "For many Bitcoin holders, they really want to leave the Bitcoin in their qualified custodian. But they also want the Bitcoin to be productive. So far it's been a choice between one of the two.” - Hunter Horsley, CEO, Bitwise Asset Management. Read how Lombard and Bitwise have partnered to offer yield on Bitcoin held in qualified custody here. 4. DeFi has grown up. The early days of DeFi were about protocols and DAOs managing user funds. Institutions don't want a governance token voting on their risk parameters. The last two years have been about handing control back to the operator. Letting institutions configure their own exposure, compliance, and risk guardrails, then giving them access to deep onchain liquidity. That shift is what is finally bringing serious capital onchain. Sid Powell, CEO of Maple Finance, on the TradFi convergence already underway: "We see TradFi banks coming in looking to extend prime brokerage to their clients. They're concerned that if they don't offer crypto trading, their clients will go off and trade with crypto venues, and then they'll want leverage." The direction of travel is one way. Watch the full panel “Navigating Bitcoin Credit Landscape” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGEpZoO1AU&t=137s Fixed-rate lending infrastructure is the next unlock. DeFi has run on variable rates for eight years. When you tell a large institution that, they look at you like you are describing a different planet. 5. Vaults are the next ETF. Start paying attention. The history of asset management is a history of delivery vehicles. Stockbrokers gave way to mutual funds. Mutual funds gave way to ETFs. Onchain vaults, transparent, non-custodial, 24/7 composable, are the next leap. Hunter Horsley: "In 1993, SPY launched and pioneered the idea of an ETF. I think that vaults are the next evolution in this history of vehicles, allowing you to access a strategy with the added benefit of transparency, possession of your assets, 24/7 interoperability. In two years, everyone in ETF land is going to be obsessed with vaults.” The ones building familiarity with this format now will have a significant head start. 6. Bitcoin yield is wildly misunderstood. When institutions hear "2% yield," they dismiss it. In dollar terms, it sounds thin. But 2% denominated in Bitcoin, on an asset that has historically appreciated significantly, is a fundamentally different proposition. The mental model shift is small. The wealth effect is not. Sarah Schroeder, CIO at Coinbase Asset Management: "When folks are thinking about earning Bitcoin yield, the headline numbers are pretty small. Mid to low single digits is very common. Folks think that's a small number, but it's really important to remember you're earning that yield denominated in Bitcoin. The wealth effect of that is much bigger than folks tend to think.” Watch the full panel “Bitcoin’s Institutional State of the Union”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c10n-yYb8Pg&t=9s 7. The quantum threat is real. The panic is not. The experts working on quantum computing still believe a cryptographically relevant quantum computer is roughly a decade away. The work to make Bitcoin quantum-resistant is already underway. Bitcoin will not die. The transition will be gradual. The market will ultimately drive the key decisions through a fork, not a small group of developers. “Don't panic, but don't wait either”, that’s the message from Matt Corallo, of Spiral, and a Bitcoin developer for 15 years. Watch Matt’s keynote presentation ‘Bitcoin in a World with Quantum Computers’ in full here. 8. The biggest skeptics are running out of arguments. Jamie Dimon. Stan Druckenmiller. For years, some of the most respected names in traditional finance have dismissed crypto. Their concerns were not unreasonable: regulation risk, lack of cash flows, an industry rife with scams and schemes. But the ground has shifted. Regulation is no longer an existential threat. DeFi protocols are beginning to demonstrate real, verifiable cash flows. And the technology is proving itself at scale. Nicolas Vanhoutteghem ****, President of Forteus, on what has changed: "The problem has been people have not been able to look beyond the noise, look at the technology, what it's going to be able to do, which we're starting to see now, which have implications way beyond just the 25,000 tokens that are listed." Road Capital Management’s Thomas Bailey on what would finally change their minds: "A claim on cash flows is what would cause them to change their minds." That claim is becoming real. The protocols exist. The legal frameworks are catching up. The last objection is dissolving. Watch the panel “The Hedge Fund Manager’s Perspective on Bitcoin” in full here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKff0aqE3f8&t=4s. 9. The best take of the two days: "It is not that DeFi is coming to Bitcoin ecosystems. It is that Bitcoin is coming to DeFi ecosystems." - Jacob Phillips, in his keynote at DAS NYC. Every major DeFi protocol has a Bitcoin strategy. Every institution building on crypto is thinking about onchain Bitcoin integration. The direction of travel is clear. The only variable is speed. Watch the full keynote "Bitcoin's Onchain State of the Union" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMVOdLLNNAA Thank you. To every speaker, panelist, and dinner guest who showed up. The willingness to be honest, specific, and forward-looking is what makes this community worth building in. To Bitwise, for co-hosting the dinner and for a partnership that is now formalized in a product we are genuinely proud of. And to everyone who filled the Bitcoin track. The room was full and the energy confirmed what we already believed. The people building the next chapter of Bitcoin finance are already in motion. We are just getting started.