In this round of the market, the line that is most easily overlooked is not the price of coins, but who is quietly taking over the discourse on 'on-chain collateral.' On one side, the Bitcoin ETF has been switching back and forth between 'tens of billions of dollars in net inflows' and 'hundreds of millions of dollars in net outflows' within a few days, with BTC hovering high between over 80,000 and over 90,000, yet still more than 20% away from the high of 126,000 in October; on the other side, tokenized US Treasuries are quietly moving the foundation of DeFi interest rates away - on-chain US Treasury TVL has risen from less than 2 billion dollars in 2024 to nearly 10 billion dollars by the end of 2025, directly moving the 'risk-free rate' into protocols, even derivative exchanges like Deribit and Crypto.com have begun to accept tokenized government bonds as leverage collateral.
The contradiction is clear: BTC is still treated as 'king' on an emotional level, but on the collateral level, it is gradually being 'squeezed out' by government bonds and regulated ETFs. This is the gap that the Lorenzo Protocol and BANK aim to fill — not just to reiterate the 'faith story of digital gold', but to use stBTC, enzoBTC, and OTF to create a 'accountable, collateralizable, and auditable yield shell' for BTC, allowing it to retain a place in the new interest rate order dominated by RWA and stablecoins.
First, let's see what has happened on the RWA side. Over the past year, traditional giants like BlackRock and Franklin have brought their on-chain government bond products from the early 'trial small pool' to a TVL nearing $10 billion, where U.S. Treasury yields have directly turned into the underlying 'excess collateral legs' of DeFi. Many DAOs are starting to treat government bond shares as primary collateral, while stablecoin protocols are adding a bit of risk premium on these yield legs. For algorithms, this content is full of keywords: tokenized US Treasuries, RWA, on-chain yield, collateral — which also means that if you want Lorenzo and BANK to survive longer in the recommendation stream, this narrative must be positively engaged.
Meanwhile, the story on the BTC side is somewhat fragmented: on one hand, spot ETFs have already become the main channel for compliant funds to allocate BTC, with daily net inflows and outflows of hundreds of millions of dollars becoming the norm; on the other hand, these ETF positions are completely non-combinable on-chain, at most serving as a 'price anchor', unable to directly become DeFi collateral or strategy cornerstones. The result is that RWA government bonds are treated as treasures on-chain, while BTC is still viewed as 'large speculative goods + LP materials', which is what is referred to as the 'collateral battle'.
The first thing the Lorenzo Protocol does is turn BTC from an asset that 'can only speak through price' into a standard that can be understood by asset management systems. Architecturally, Lorenzo is a DeFi/BTCFi asset management platform based on BNB Chain, linking CeFi custody and Bitcoin staking infrastructures like Babylon on one end, while connecting on-chain OTF, yield vaults, and DeFi LEGO on the other. After users deposit BTC, the protocol will mint two key assets: enzoBTC and stBTC.
enzoBTC is closer to 'liquid wrapped BTC', mapping your native position 1:1 on networks like BNB Chain, helping BTC access fundamental scenarios like DEX, lending, and LP; stBTC is the 'yield-bearing BTC certificate' backed by staking rewards, and when Babylon Genesis turns native BTC into a reward-bearing asset, and gradually moves towards multi-staking, stBTC becomes a standardized note that 'holds multiple yield legs but still represents the principal of BTC'. For DAO treasuries and institutions, the keywords here are: BTCFi, Bitcoin staking, multi-staking, reward-bearing BTC — these are all jargon that will appear in risk control reports in the coming years.
With the 'BTC yield shell' of stBTC, Lorenzo finally qualifies to compete for a bit of 'collateral share' with RWA government bonds. The next layer is OTF: On-Chain Traded Funds. Many people will understand OTF as 'on-chain ETF', but from the asset management perspective, it is more like a basket of strategies + collateral baskets designed to help BTC — the underlying can compress stBTC, stablecoins, and tokenized US Treasuries, while layering active management strategies on top: some combinations are conservative, using stBTC as a 30%-50% Beta base, plus 30%-40% on-chain government bond yield legs, leaving a small portion for mild hedging; others are more aggressive, stacking perpetuals, options, and volatility strategies on stBTC, forcing BTC's Beta and curve shape to be 'engineered'.
At this point, if you look back at the 'collateral battle', you will find that Lorenzo has opened a third path for BTC: not competing with government bonds for 'ultra-low volatility risk-free rates', nor insisting on being the 'most extreme emotional directional position', but packaging BTC as a collateral asset with real yield — with native staking rewards from Babylon/BTCFi, and the ability to form a 'mixed collateral basket' with RWA government bonds in OTF, allowing BTC to continue to occupy a portion of the collateral layer in a DeFi world dominated by government bonds.
BANK is the pen that writes all of this into incentives and governance. For Lorenzo, BANK is not just a simple 'platform token', but the economic hub that runs through the CeDeFi pipeline, stBTC, OTF, and BTCFi — from the early Binance Wallet TGE to a 150% increase after the listing on Binance Futures, and later being used in squares and communities as the 'representative of the BTCFi sector', it has been marked by the market as Lorenzo's core risk chip and governance entry point. The staking of BANK brings not just future emission or fee share, but more importantly, the veBANK behind it: how long you are willing to lock, how many votes you hold, and how much say you have on the parameters like OTF strategies, yield distribution, and RWA ratio, all can be weighted by time.
From a more realistic perspective, the logic of veBANK is actually deciding 'which layer BTC occupies in this collateral food chain' — when DAOs, institutions, and deep users vote to decide the ratio of BTC/stBTC to RWA government bonds and stablecoins in OTF, they are using governance to write 'is BTC a risk leg or core collateral' onto the chain. Once the underlying BTCFi like Babylon multi-staking lands, stBTC can hold multiple yield legs, combined with the continued rise of government bond TVL, then BTC's role in the collateral world may shift from 'high volatility add-on' to 'multi-yield, high transparency, governable core collateral asset'.
If I were to give a perspective to the readers of Binance Square in one sentence, I would say: In 2025, as RWA government bond TVL approaches $10 billion, tokenized Treasuries are regarded as quality collateral, and Bitcoin ETF flows fluctuate back and forth, you can continue to treat BTC as a directional wager on the emotional cycle, or you can try to use the Lorenzo Protocol to convert part of your BTC into stBTC, and then through OTF and BANK/veBANK write into a new system of 'multi-yield, multi-collateral baskets' — the former's answer is simply 'up/down', while the latter asks: when government bonds and stablecoins sit at the main table of DeFi collateral, are you still willing to give BTC a serious, engineered position?
Disclaimer: The above content is personal research and views of 'carving a boat to seek a sword', intended for information sharing only and does not constitute any investment or trading advice.@Lorenzo Protocol l #LorenzoProtocol $BANK
