Bitcoin is the undeniable front-runner as a digital currency with over $2.2 trillion in market capitalization. The drive behind the colossal investment in Bitcoin has been its status as “digital gold”, a secure, scarce, and liquid reserve asset.
This has left it largely idle. But that's changing fast.
Today, a new movement is emerging. At Plume, we call this "Real-World Bitcoin," or RWB.
This new mobilization of capital is creating new opportunities to transform Bitcoin into an active, yield-generating, and institutionally usable asset.
To understand how Real-World Bitcoin is changing the ecosystem, Plume surveyed 15 leading protocols building Bitcoin-backed products on the Plume network. These partners revealed why they integrated BTC and how they’re creating value for institutional users.
Their responses unlocked a clear set of trends:
Bitcoin is evolving from a passive store of value into a yield-bearing, compliant, and institutionally usable foundation for global finance.
Here’s everything we learned.
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1. Bitcoin Liquidity Becomes Productive
A consistent theme across builders is the shift from custodial, high-risk BTC lending (for example, Celsius or BlockFi) toward self-custodial, transparent, and compliant models. Projects like Yala, Avalon and BIMA demonstrate how Bitcoin collateral can back stablecoins ($YU, USDa, USBD), giving users liquidity without sacrificing BTC exposure. These assets not only circulate in DeFi but are now integrated directly into RWA markets, linking BTC liquidity to instruments such as credit, and commodities.
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These Real-World Bitcoin projects (below) are already bringing in considerable liquidity. Yala reported $230M in total value locked (TVL) as of August 2025 and Avalon Labs has already seen $2B+ in TVL in January 2025 with USDa adoption growing steadily. USDa currently sits at a market cap of $260.56M.
Similarly, BitFi and BounceBit bridge CeFi and DeFi by offering structured, delta-neutral strategies that deliver predictable yield. Both emphasize institutional-grade safeguards such as off-exchange settlement and on-chain transparency, features designed to earn the trust of allocators and treasuries.
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2. BTC as a Security Layer for Decentralized Infrastructure
Beyond liquidity, BTC is being reimagined as an infrastructure asset. Pell Network uses Bitcoin restaking to secure applications across Plume, while Babylon integrates BTC directly into decentralized staking layers. In both cases, Bitcoin moves from passive collateral into a shared security layer underpinning decentralized applications and RWA protocols.
This extends BTC’s utility into validation, risk management, and systemic stability.
SatLayer uses restaked BTC as bonded collateral, with programmable slashing to enforce correct behavior. This infrastructure extends Bitcoin into verification, giving cross-chain networks the option to secure messaging with the most liquid asset in crypto.
For institutions, this introduces a new category of yield: returns generated not from speculative leverage, but from contributing to network security. Combined with Plume’s compliance stack, these models create an auditable, institution-friendly framework for staking BTC at scale.
3. The Rise of Bitcoin-Native Financial Products
Protocols such as exSat and Lorenzo are building full-stack asset management systems for Bitcoin. exSAT frames BTC as the base layer of an on-chain bank, combining yield, compliance, and RWA integrations into a diversified financial platform. Lorenzo focuses on institutional wrappers like enzoBTC and On-Chain Traded Funds (OTFs), designed to turn Bitcoin into a portfolio instrument that can plug into traditional investment strategies.
SOLV has SolvBTC, a Bitcoin-backed asset designed to move BTC in a borderless and capital-efficient way. With SolvBTC, users can access services including liquid staking, lending, and yield generation, while extending Bitcoin’s role across TradFi, CeFi, and DeFi.
Together, these projects show how Bitcoin is transitioning from a speculative store of value into a regulated investment vehicle with standardized products, credit lines, and transparent performance benchmarks.
4. BTC as Institutional Collateral
The final piece of Real-World Bitcoin’s expansion is credit. Arkis and DeSyn provide structured pathways for institutions to use Bitcoin as collateral in credit markets and managed liquidity pools. Arkis borrows from traditional prime brokerage models, enabling institutions to lend, borrow, and manage leverage under a compliance-ready framework. DeSyn, by contrast, packages BTC liquidity into risk-managed pools with strong adoption, proving demand for BTC collateral strategies with built-in protections.
Meanwhile, CIAN Finance demonstrates the scalability of BTC yield aggregation. Its multi-source restaking yield layer simplifies institutional entry into BTC-backed structured products, with compliance-ready white-label solutions for funds and custodians.
5. The Institutionalization of Real-World Bitcoin
Across all protocols, one clear trend emerges: institutions are the target market. Every builder emphasizes compliance, transparency, and predictable performance, requirements absent in earlier waves of Bitcoin finance. Plume’s infrastructure, with built-in compliance, RWA rails, and EVM compatibility, is the common denominator that allows these protocols to convert BTC into an institutional-grade asset class.
The result is a multi-layered Bitcoin economy that encompasses liquidity, security, asset management and credit and collateral offerings.
Together, these functions transform Bitcoin from a passive asset into a productive foundation for both DeFi and traditional finance.
Plume: The Real-World Bitcoin Accelerator
Each layer of Real-World Bitcoin’s evolution depends on the same foundation: compliance, transparency, and infrastructure at scale.
Bitcoin-backed stablecoins and liquidity strategies only work if institutions can deploy capital safely. Plume’s compliance stack and RWA-first architecture ensures that liquidity providers, trading firms, and credit managers can operate under familiar regulatory standards while accessing yield.
Restaking and decentralized security models require cross-chain interoperability and auditable settlement. Plume provides these rails, allowing protocols like Pell and Babylon to connect Bitcoin into new security layers while giving institutions confidence in transparent pricing, slashing, and liquidation.
From asset management wrappers to tokenized investment vehicles, institutions need tools that integrate with existing workflows. Plume’s EVM compatibility mirrors the architecture of traditional finance, making it simple to build diversified products that align with institutional compliance and reporting requirements.
Credit markets depend on robust risk management. Plume’s infrastructure enables margin accounts, managed pools, and embedded repayment flows to run securely onchain, so institutions can use BTC as collateral without introducing counterparty risk.
Ultimately, every protocol in this movement converges on institutions as the end market.
Plume is the bridge between DeFi innovation and institutional adoption, giving asset managers, custodians, and allocators a platform where Bitcoin becomes a yield-bearing, auditable, and standardized financial asset.
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Bitcoin’s Next Chapter
Real-World Bitcoin is not about replacing Bitcoin’s role as “digital gold,” but about expanding it. With self-custody, compliance, and RWA integration as guiding principles, Bitcoin is now positioned as a base asset for global finance: liquid, secure, and yield-bearing.
What gold was to central banks, Bitcoin may soon be to decentralized and institutional finance: a universal reserve, this time one that works productively across both digital and real-world markets.
Together with out partners, Plume is unlocking the productive, compliant, and connected future of Bitcoin.
Full survey results for this partner spotlight are available on Plume’s "Bitcoin At Work" Series. Special thanks to our partners for their participation: Arkis, Avalon, Babylon, BIMA, BitFi, BounceBit, CIAN Finance, DeSyn, exSat, MaxBTC, Pell, SatLayer, SOLV, and Yala.
