Bitcoin wasn’t designed for staking. So where does yield come from? Richard Green, VP Institutional at @RootstockLabs, in a chat with @gazza_jenks recently, explains how @rootstock_io is approaching the question differently: creating more utility for Bitcoin holders while staying anchored to Proof of Work, without piling on unnecessary financial engineering. And there’s a hint here about what’s coming next.

Who actually controls Bitcoin when the rules are contested? Not necessarily the biggest holder. Not necessarily the miner with the most hashrate. The answer sits somewhere between holdings, settlement, and hashrate. Based on Tony DiCarlo’s analysis.

A downturn is where lending models get properly tested. As Richard Green, VP Institutional at @RootstockLabs, tells @sandmark_news : “Speculation abates, but organic liquidity demand stays surprisingly sticky.” He also looks at how borrowing demand changes across market cycles, and why new lending structures could turn Bitcoin borrowing from a high-stakes margin trade into a more stable capital-allocation tool. Worth a read.

Rootstock is building the infrastructure for Bitcoin-secured finance and onchain capital markets, from BTC vaults and structured products to onchain credit markets and RWAs. That was a discussion we brought to @WebX_Asia in Tokyo earlier this week in. More on this soon. @BRootstockLabs at the event 👇

Corporate Bitcoin holdings are growing. But most of that BTC is sitting idle. Public companies currently hold approximately 1.26 million $BTC, worth nearly $80 billion, across 197 companies tracked by @BTCtreasuries. Yet only a very small share of corporate Bitcoin is being put to work. As the graphic highlights, less than 0.8% is earning yield, leaving more than 99% held as a passive reserve. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Treasury teams must weigh custody, liquidity, counterparty exposure, regulation and the risk attached to any yield-generating strategy. But it does reveal a wider opportunity. Bitcoin does not only have to be held or sold. It can also be used as collateral to access liquidity while preserving exposure to the underlying asset. For companies holding BTC, the next treasury question may not be: Should we sell? It may be: How can we use the Bitcoin on our balance sheet without giving it up? The infrastructure for Bitcoin-secured finance is now being built around that question.

A month on from @BTCPrague and @BtcCorpDay, one thing still stands out. The conversations were not simply about where Bitcoin’s price might go next. Smaller and mid-sized miners were looking at practical questions: • How can they release liquidity without selling their Bitcoin? • How can they fund CapEx and OpEx? • What types of collateral can they use? As Tony Dicarlo explains, the sector is becoming increasingly active in its search for liquidity. And as Richard Green, IMC puts it, the mood was not one of “radical optimism.” It was "considered optimism" — more detailed conversations about how Bitcoin businesses can actually operate, finance growth and navigate difficult market conditions.

How much Bitcoin should remain locked to cover a liquidity event that may never happen? Holding the maximum possible reserve is the simplest answer. It is also the least capital-efficient. While co-designing a product for Bitcoin miners, @RootstockLabs simulated more than 10,000 possible outcomes to better understand the liquidity required under different conditions. That gave the team a stronger basis for adjusting the product design, covering potential client needs, and reducing the amount of Bitcoin that would otherwise remain unused. This is where AI becomes useful for a digital asset company. Not when it is added to every workflow, but when it helps solve a real business constraint, improve a decision, reduce risk, or change the economics of a product. The value was not automation for its own sake. It was better decision-making under uncertainty. A useful way to assess these opportunities is through a value × feasibility matrix: • How much value could the use case create? • And how prepared is the company to implement it responsibly? AI-assisted reporting, scenario simulation, and stress testing can be quick wins because they build on data and processes that already exist. Real-time risk pricing, dynamic collateral management, and treasury rebalancing may offer greater strategic value, but they also require stronger data, integrations, controls, and accountability. The same principle applies to model selection. Not every problem needs a large language model. Some are better addressed through forecasting, optimization, anomaly detection, deterministic rules, or a combination of approaches. The goal is not to use the most advanced model available. It is to improve a meaningful outcome. Adapted from a post by @gca_5772, following insights shared by Andrea Cremonino during the AI in Bank Treasury workshop. Original post linked in comments.

Next week, it's @MiningDisrupt in Miami and we will be there with a clear message for miners. Your $BTC should be working for your business, not sitting idle or being sold to fund operations. Connect with @th3amcofficial to meet the RootstockLabs team and join the conversation. Mining companies often hold substantial BTC reserves while facing constant pressure from energy costs, market volatility and working-capital needs. Bitcoin-backed liquidity can offer another path: helping miners finance operations, improve treasury efficiency and access capital without automatically selling their Bitcoin. See you there.

"What do people say when you tell them you work for a crypto company?" That's the question we posed to some of our colleagues at RootstockLabs. Reactions range from genuine curiosity to a few raised eyebrows, and that's fair. Crypto is still new to most people, and skepticism is a reasonable response to something you don't fully understand yet. We're building technology most people haven't caught up to yet. If that sounds like your kind of problem, we're hiring.

Bitcoin miners earn BTC. So why is so much miner debt still denominated in dollars? That currency mismatch is one of the most important but under-discussed risks in miner financing. In this conversation, Richard Green, VP of Institutional at @RootstockLabs, sits down with @btsf_1, founder and CEO of BTSF, to discuss miner financing, BTC-denominated credit, native yield, and why productive lending matters for Bitcoin. They cover: • Why miners are difficult to finance • Why earning BTC and borrowing USD creates additional risk • Why small and mid-sized miners matter for Bitcoin decentralization • What BTC-denominated credit could unlock • Why real Bitcoin yield comes from productive lending, not financial engineering

BTCFi should not mean taking Bitcoin liquidity and moving it further away from Bitcoin’s security model. That is the myth worth challenging. Bitcoin DeFi is often framed as “use BTC in DeFi,” but the more important question is: what rails is that activity actually built on? @rootstock_io was built for a different answer. As a BTCFi layer, Rootstock brings smart contract functionality to Bitcoin while staying anchored to Bitcoin through merge mining. This means builders can create DeFi applications for Bitcoin holders without treating Bitcoin as just another wrapped asset on unrelated infrastructure. That distinction matters. Because if BTCFi is going to become serious financial infrastructure, Bitcoin should not only be the asset being used. It should also be part of the security foundation. BTCFi is not about leaving Bitcoin rails behind. It is about expanding what can be built on them.

When it costs ~$80K to mine $BTC and the market price is ~$64K, selling becomes an expensive way to raise liquidity. So what’s the alternative? That's precisely what our webinar next week will unpack: @xapobankapp @DMND_Sv2

How do Bitcoin-native companies access capital without selling $BTC? That’s the question at the center of next week’s webinar. Register here: Join Richard Green, Denis Rusinovich, and Tommy Doyle for a live discussion on Bitcoin as collateral, BTC-backed financing, LTV, liquidation risk, and treasury strategy.

The real mining race is no longer just for ASICs. It is for power. Bitcoin miners used to be valued mainly by hashrate, fleet efficiency, and cost per terahash. That still matters. But the market is starting to price something deeper: access to electricity, grid interconnection, land, cooling, and flexible load infrastructure. 🟢 Network resilience Bitcoin does not need every miner to stay profitable forever. Hashrate can move. Difficulty can adjust. Blocks can slow, then normalize. The base layer keeps doing what it was designed to do. 🟡 Power reallocation The headlines call it an AI pivot. The data suggests something bigger. Public miners are not only chasing a new narrative. They are monetizing the scarce asset they already spent years acquiring: power access. AI data centers want it. Bitcoin miners already have it. 🔴 The new economics of a megawatt Hashrate is not disappearing, but it is becoming economically mobile. The same megawatt can mine Bitcoin, support AI or HPC, or sit in a demand-response programme, and miner behaviour will increasingly be shaped by power markets as much as Bitcoin markets. The operators who win are the ones who stack the most revenue onto each megawatt without diverting capital away from the hashrate they already run. The Signal Bitcoin mining is not breaking. It is being repriced. The canary is not warning that the network is weak. It is warning that the economics around the network have changed. The next mining cycle may not be won by whoever owns the most machines. It may be won by whoever controls the best power, and makes each megawatt earn the most while it runs.

“Bitcoin can’t be treated like a passive asset that just appreciates every year.” That was one of the big ideas from Episode 2 of Bitcoin Forward. Tony DiCarlo and Richard Green discuss mining pressure, difficulty adjustments, the AI shift, treasury strategy, and BTC-backed lending. Here’s a snippet of what was covered. More coming soon.

Bitcoin as collateral is becoming an institutional conversation. Join @RootstockLabs for a live webinar with Tommy Doyle, Head of CCG & Institutional at @xapobankapp, to explore $BTC backed liquidity, treasury management, and financing use cases for Bitcoin-native companies. Sign up: For eligible institutional or qualified counterparties only.