This is part of an ongoing case study series "Bitcoin At Work," highlighting the success of Real-World Bitcoin builders on Plume.
Plume’s Real-World Bitcoin mission is simple: turn Bitcoin from the world’s largest idle asset into the backbone of institutional-grade, onchain finance.
By bridging BTC directly into tokenized real-world assets, Plume delivers institutional-grade RWAs with steady, scalable yield.
Building BTC Institutional Credit with Arkis on Plume
Bitcoin represents $2.2 trillion in largely idle capital, functioning primarily as a store of value. Real-World Bitcoin seeks to make this capital more productive, but regulatory and compliance hurdles have limited its ability to attract institutional participation.
Arkis, a permissioned CeFi+DeFi (CeDeFi) prime brokerage protocol, is working to address this gap. It provides a neutral credit settlement layer where institutional lenders and borrowers can interact under controlled conditions.
The team has drawn from traditional finance models such as prime brokerage, custody frameworks, and privacy solutions, adapting these structures for DeFi. Their aim is to create infrastructure that mirrors the tested architecture of asset managers while preserving the openness and programmability of blockchain.
BTC as Collateral in Credit Markets
For institutions looking to do more with their Bitcoin, Arkis provides structured ways to deploy it without compromising compliance, transparency, or liquidity.
Arkis functions as an instrument rather than an intermediary. It does not control funds or make allocation decisions; instead, it enables credit managers to represent their funds onchain through tools like margin accounts, liquidity pools, and embedded repayment flows.
BTC can be used within Arkis either as a loan asset for trading firms or placed into a neutral strategy that executes basis trades to generate yield. In this environment, institutions can collateralize their portfolios, gain access to leverage of up to 5x, and borrow within a framework that is designed to handle pricing, liquidation, and settlement securely.
Risk management is central to the model. Only assets that meet standards for liquidity, reliable pricing, and smooth liquidation are supported. This creates a controlled ecosystem where capital providers, asset managers, and credit managers interact directly, avoiding counterparty risk while maintaining flexibility.
Meeting Compliance Needs with Plume
Even with a CeDeFi model, institutional adoption depends on regulatory alignment. Arkis is building on Plume to meet this requirement.
Plume provides compliance-ready infrastructure with integrated KYC/AML and an RWA-first design. This reduces barriers for firms that cannot operate in DeFi without these mechanisms in place. Its EVM compatibility allows Arkis’s strategies to be deployed at scale, while cross-chain liquidity ensures BTC can move efficiently between markets.
With these pieces, Plume extends the reach of BTC-backed credit products and supports Arkis’s vision of bringing BTC yield strategies into a compliant, institution-friendly framework.
Scaling RWA Credit Lines
Arkis has already provided $100 million in credit to leading trading firms, showing strong demand for its structure. The next step is scaling credit lines with regulated RWA products, pairing BTC deployment with yield sources that meet institutional standards.
This approach positions Arkis to turn Bitcoin into a productive credit asset that can be integrated into structured finance without losing the safeguards institutions require.