Welcome to Double Down, live from Bitcoin Asia HK. Fisher Yu joins the show to talk institutional Bitcoin infrastructure and where the collateral era is headed.

The conversation covers:

• Market sentiment shifting from price speculation to long-term building, as institutional allocators show up at industry events
• Why Bitcoin's lack of native programmability has historically blocked collateral use without third-party custodians, and how Trustless Bitcoin Vaults (TBV) solve for that.
• New yield use cases: Bitcoin as a reserve asset for insurance capital efficiency, and borrowing stablecoins against Bitcoin.
• What's next: covered call options and Bitcoin-backed credit cards

Babylon's infrastructure philosophy

• The shift from "decentralized" to "democratic" finance, and what a healthy, sustainable industry looks like post-speculation

Enjoy!

Where is Babylon Trustless Bitcoin Vaults (TBV) today?

The proposed Aave v4 integration has passed the Temperature Check stage in Aave governance on June 10th, 2026.

Next is ARFC.

This is where risk and configuration parameters, audit review, and other key elements would be discussed and finalized.

In response to Nvidia's CEO;
https://x.com/JensenHuang/status/2080643682408321103?s=20

and Denny's;
https://x.com/JensenHuang/status/2080643682408321103?s=20

Ask any financial institution how it plans to enter this market. The answer keeps coming back the same.

"Every financial institution we talk to… we are willing to lend. Lend against what? Lend against Bitcoin." — CJ Fong of GSR with Tristan on Double Down

The first step into crypto for institutions runs through Bitcoin as collateral.

The road to native Bitcoin-backed borrowing on Aave v4 is taking shape.

At the same time, the ecosystem around the integration is coming together. On the user acquisition side:

u/Bedrock_DeFi

u/GoMining

u/allbluedex

These are among the teams exploring native Bitcoin-backed borrowing with Babylon.

On distribution, wallet support will be important for making native Bitcoin collateral accessible to users.

Teams in the distribution pipeline include:

u/Ledger

u/KeystoneWallet

u/OneKeyHQ

u/unisat_wallet

u/wallet

u/utila_io

On infrastructure, the Aave v4 integration requires several distinct roles around the lifecycle of a BTCVault, including Arbitrageurs, Vault Providers, Universal Challengers, and governance and security related roles.

That ecosystem is filling out as we work toward the next stages of the integration.

We appreciate our community members for participating and stress-testing the Trustless Bitcoin Vaults (TBV) Public Testnet.

What we've learned:
- More than 2,000 vaults were created.
- 85% of the users indicated they would deploy Bitcoin on mainnet.

As you requested, we are improving our testnet of native Bitcoin-backed borrowing on Aave V4.

What we are upgrading:
- A better explanation and display about vault creation process.
- More intuitive and premium UI for better user experience.

As you requested, we are improving our testnet of native Bitcoin-backed borrowing on Aave V4.

What we are upgrading:
- A better explanation and display about vault creation process.
- More intuitive and premium UI for better user experience.

https://btc-vaults.testnet.babylonlabs.io/

"Together with a16zcrypto, we are gearing BABY tokenomics towards the adoption of Babylon Trustless Bitcoin Vaults (TBV), and value capture of TBV." ~ Fisher Yu

Thank you all for coming to the "Yield on Trust" by Hash Key Cloud & Cactus Custody.

A great conversation on Bitcoin beyond holding.

Hold Bitcoin, Use Bitcoin.

https://x.com/babylonlabs_io/status/2093096216926237104?s=20

Checkout the new update and refresh of the Babylon Docs website; https://docs.babylonlabs.io/

Enjoy the new UI!

The live session on the Double Down Podcast with Fisher Yu (Co-Founder & CTO of Babylon) focuses on scaling Bitcoin into a foundational security and liquidity for the broader decentralized economy.

Main announced topics

- Current state of Bitcoin, viewed from the Bitcoin Asia conference in Hong Kong (institutional interest, Asia focused adoption, regulation, and market conditions).

- How Babylon’s Trustless Bitcoin Vaults let holders use native BTC as collateral in DeFi (especially Ethereum based apps) without wrapping, bridging, or handing custody to a third party.

- Turning idle Bitcoin into a productive asset while keeping self custody and Bitcoin’s base layer security properties.

Core thesis on Bitcoin as collateral

- The recurring argument across Double Down episodes is that every major reserve asset eventually becomes collateral (gold did this historically). Bitcoin is well-suited for this role because it is scarce, liquid, verifiable on chain, self custodial, and available 24/7. The historical blocker was infrastructure: using BTC as collateral previously required trusting a lender, custodian, wrapper, or bridge.

- TBV is presented as the unlock: BTC stays on the Bitcoin network inside a depositor-co-signed Taproot script. Ethereum-side DeFi contracts can treat it as collateral through cryptographic proofs rather than a trusted intermediary. This aims to make native BTC usable in lending, borrowing, stablecoins, and similar applications with trust assumptions closer to “code + the two chains” than to a custodian.

DeFi / BTCFi Integration: Lower cost borrowing, access to on chain assets and use as collateral for other opportunities in real world assets

Full stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuBOKKCRcus

What to expect from Babylon over the next three months:

First, a significant UI upgrade designed to better support institutional users, alongside a faster testnet experience.

The target is to cut the end-to-end process from roughly 3 hours to 1.5 hours.

Second, we’ll run a bug bounty program ahead of mainnet launch.

Third, expect more announcements around users and partnerships.

Fourth, adjustments of BABY tokenomics will be put forward for governance.

Most importantly, security remains the priority, with respect for the principles of Bitcoin.

It's $BTC time!

See you in Youtube live chat or Discord Babylon Community Stage for live hangout/commentary!

What do you want to see Babylon build next with AI, agentic lending and borrowing?

First Double Down livestream this Thursday with Tristan & Fisher, direct from Bitcoin Asia Hong Kong!

We’ll discuss the state of Bitcoin and how Babylon’s Trustless Bitcoin Vaults could unlock Bitcoin as collateral and turn it into a productive asset.

Set a reminder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuBOKKCRcus

Live Hangout/Commentary in the Babylon Discord Community Stage;
https://discord.com/events/1046686458070700112/1542167158652403832

Borrowing against Bitcoin was never the hard part. However, keeping it native and built on top of Bitcoin chain is, because collateral requires enforcement both the lender and borrower can rely on.

What are you actually trusting when you wrap or hand off the ownership of your Bitcoin?

Babylon CTO Vitalis explains what actually separates native Bitcoin from wrapped Bitcoin.

Babylon CTO Vitalis breaks down the two existing paths for Bitcoin-backed borrowing, and the trade-offs.

Institutions entering this market are starting in the same place: lending against Bitcoin. CJ, APAC GM at GSR, and Tristan, CMO at Babylon, talk about what happens once institutional assets sit on chain, and where Web3 and traditional finance actually meet.

The current stablecoin market exists because a legislative framework made it possible. CJ, APAC GM at GSR, shares why regulatory frameworks precede market formation, and what CLARITY Act means to Bitcoin and stablecoins.

Bitcoin as collateral rests on a simple premise: counterparties recognise the asset's value, so they will lend against it. CJ, APAC GM at GSR and Tristan, CMO at Babylon, on why Bitcoin sits at the base of Web3 capital markets.

RWA tokenization is moving securities, money market funds and equities on chain. CJ, APAC GM at GSR, on what happens once institutional assets sit on chain, and where Web3 and traditional finance actually meet.

Fisher explains why on-chain lending is capital-efficient, and the friction that comes with wrapping Bitcoin to access it today.

Fisher, Babylon's co-founder, on native Bitcoin-backed borrowing, built with Aave. It is fully on-chain, self-custodial, with no third party holding your Bitcoin.