Bitcoin is the first but has always been stuck in the first phase! After reading Lombard's white paper, there's one point I particularly agree with: It's not about first talking about what product you want to create, but rather breaking down the current state of Bitcoin. This order is correct! It shows they really want to solve the existing issues with Bitcoin rather than just showing off! They laid it out quite practically, directly exposing the reality! Here’s what I want to share 👇 ▰▰▰▰ These are the main issues: ※ BTC's total market cap is 1.4 trillion, accounting for half of the crypto market, but there’s very little it can do on-chain. ※ There’s no native yield, unlike ETH which at least has staking. ※ Want to enter DeFi? You can only go the wrapped route, and you still have to trust custodians! ※ The places where BTC can truly be used are fragmented, with liquidity scattered and not forming a system. ※ Even in DeFi, ETH and USDC are the mainstream collateral, while BTC is very marginal. ※ The vast majority of BTC is just sitting idle, neither moving nor producing any on-chain traces. So you’ll find that, although BTC is the leader in crypto, its on-chain participation is almost absent. It’s like a giant asset locked in a vault, looking impressive but not really driving the ecosystem much～ ▰▰▰▰ This past year has been different! The BTC chain has actually started to move: ※ Runes have made the structure lighter. ※ Inscriptions and BRC-20 have opened up asset layer gameplay. ※ OP_CAT, ScriptPath, and Miniscript are starting to encourage people to think about combinations. ※ Layer 2 projects are gradually starting, with Babylon and Botanix both trying. ※ The BTC ecosystem is no longer just about having the strongest consensus; people are starting to want to participate deeply. You could even say that BTC's current state is somewhat like ETH in 2019! The infrastructure is just becoming usable, there aren’t many scenarios, but the few that can run are already working! ▰▰▰▰ Why am I paying attention to Lombard? Because they’re not just shouting that BTCFi is here, but are seriously working on connecting an interface! How to allow #BTC to participate in PoS, generate yield, and engage in DeFi without moving its core! And LBTC is that interface! It leverages Babylon's economic security network to allow BTC to stake for yield, then packages it into a tradable LST for use in DeFi! More importantly, they are not trying to package Bitcoin but respect its design, then build participation pathways around it! This is how Bitcoin should be! ▰▰▰▰ In summary I don’t want to say this is the next narrative for BTC; that kind of talk is too slick and unrealistic. But one thing I do agree with is: Bitcoin has indeed reached the point where it should transition from just being held to truly participating! And whoever can get this right will occupy an important role for Bitcoin on-chain for a long time to come! Because there aren’t many competitors, and no one has been very successful! Lombard seems to have that potential for me! I will continue to read more and dig deeper into the project’s information and share with everyone! #KaitoYap @KaitoAI @JacobPPhillips @Lombard_Finance #Yap $BTC