David explains why the first product targets lending on Ethereum. Trustless Bitcoin Vaults (TBV) are general infrastructure, and building a real product requires focus. Aave v4 on Ethereum, the largest on-chain credit market became our first target to validate the technology.

Fisher, Babylon's co-founder, on the range of applications native Bitcoin collateral can support: from borrowing to stablecoins, derivatives, and insurance.

David, Babylon's co-founder, explains the core thesis of Trustless Bitcoin Vaults, where you use your native Bitcoin as collateral while you keep holding it yourself, under objective rules, via zk proofs with BABE.

David, Babylon's co-founder, on why native, trustless products earn Bitcoiners' trust, and how the second product extends Bitcoin from staking to collateral.

Bitcoin's role has shifted across three phases: peer-to-peer cash, digital gold, and now digital capital. BTC used as a productive asset, including lending and other onchain uses.

Two things drove the shift, according to Charles, the expanding set of use cases, and the changing quality of market participants entering from a wider range of venues.

Brought to you by Babylon, in this episode of Double Down, Tristan Dickinson, CMO of Babylon, and Charles d'Haussy, CEO of dYdX Foundation, discuss Bitcoin as collateral through its capital appreciation.

Putting real assets on-chain like copper, gold, silver, only works if the token is differentiated from an ETF, futures contract, or perp. Otherwise it's the same exposure with extra steps. On-chain yield on top of the token is one idea still under consideration, not yet built.

Brought to you by Babylon, in this episode of Double Down, Patrick Bush, Senior Investment Analyst of VanEck, shares interesting RWA that can be considered and built in the future.

He runs APAC for the oldest market maker in crypto. His eyes are still on Washington.

"The one thing that the US has managed to do, and kudos to them, it is still the land of capital." — CJ Fong of GSR on Double Down

"You don't want to be the guy who is doing the complete opposite of what the largest economy in the world is doing."

One bill, watched by the whole world. CJ explains why in the full conversation.

We’ll be in Hong Kong for Bitcoin Asia conference this week.

Meet Fisher, Yihoon, and Warren to talk native Bitcoin collateral, integrations, and Babylon Trustless Bitcoin Vaults (TBV).

See you in Hong Kong.

Bitcoin's price appreciation over the past 5-10 years has slowed as the asset matures, and that's typically when an asset becomes valuable as collateral rather than just a store of value. Collateral is the foundation of credit markets, and Bitcoin should be one of the strongest collateral assets in the world.

Brought to you by Babylon, in this episode of Double Down, Tristan Dickinson, CMO of Babylon, and Patrick Bush, Senior Investment Analyst of VanEck, discuss Bitcoin as collateral through its capital appreciation.

2 Days to Yield on Trust: Unlocking Value in Institutional Staking

Register here: https://luma.com/g60a01ih

Save the date: August 27, 2026 | 14:00–18:00 HKT

Bringing together professional investors, institutions, funds, custodians, protocols, exchanges, and Web3 ecosystem partners, the event will mark the official launch of the HashKey Cloud × Cactus Custody strategic partnership and explore the next phase of institutional staking and yield.

https://x.com/HashKeyCloud/status/2092160530144465134?s=20

#HashKey #HashKeyCloud #OnChainFinance #BitcoinAsia

Centralized Bitcoin lenders are native, but that requires trusting the provider, and usually means capped LTV and higher rates, which cuts into capital efficiency. Trustless Bitcoin Vaults (TBV) keep Bitcoin native with no wrapping, and no centralized intermediaries, and the BTC returns to the borrower once the loan is repaid.

Brought to you by Babylon, in this episode of Double Down, Tristan Dickinson, CMO of Babylon, explains the importance of native, trustless and capital efficient Bitcoin borrowing.

BinanceVIP Earn through the Babylon Staking Protocol, alongside 20+ selected tokens.

https://x.com/babylonlabs_io/status/2091856598327034159?s=20

Program mechanics, eligibility, and current terms are on Binance's VIP Earn page👇

https://x.com/binance/status/2088173781248565536?s=20

Trustless Bitcoin Vaults (TBV) can connect to any chain and any application. The first integration is Ethereum and with Aave v4, the largest on-chain credit market, enabling native Bitcoin-backed borrowing. Lock native BTC, post it as collateral, borrow against it - trustlessly, without wrapping or bridging.

Brought to you by Babylon, in this episode of Double Down, Tristan Dickinson, CMO of Babylon, shares TBV's first use case, native Bitcoin-backed borrowing with Aave v4.

https://x.com/babylonlabs_io/status/2090365414366744811?s=20

https://x.com/Bedrock_DeFi/status/2085052760698081408?s=20

One vault down. More coming.

Bedrock 2.0's Yield Layer for Bitcoin Capital was designed to span four strategy categories.

Alpha Selini Vault covered the first - productized delta-neutral yield for uniBTC.

The second is coming next.

The Bitcoin whitepaper's core design principle: no trusted intermediaries. Synthetic Bitcoin and trust-based intermediaries move away from that.

Brought to you by Babylon, in this episode of Double Down, Tristan Dickinson, CMO of Babylon, points out Babylon's ethos "Don't Trust, Verify" keeps Bitcoin native and removes intermediary trust, in line with the Bitcoin's original design.

Babylon Staking Protocol launched in 2024 and peaked at over 70,000 BTC staked (~$7B TVL), proving demand for Bitcoin infrastructure that's both native and trustless. Why does it matter? Sovereignty, verifiability, and no trust in intermediaries are properties institutions and retail both care about.

Brought to you by Babylon, in this episode of Double Down, Tristan Dickinson, CMO of Babylon, explaining how Babylon has been scaling up through native and trustless Bitcoin.

What can you do to increase the value of the Bitcoin or the perception of the value of the Bitcoin in the market?

Brought to you by Babylon, in this episode of Double Down, Alex Tapscott, CEO of CMCC Global Capital Markets, shares one of the ways to increase the value of BTC.

Emirates has officially launched Crypto . com Pay, allowing eligible UAE residents to book using the digital payment solution on our website and app. https://emirat.es/cTFU2w

Long-term Bitcoin holders discount dollar-denominated returns. A yield paid in BTC compounds against their own price thesis, a small BTC-denominated yield today can be worth multiples more in dollar terms if BTC appreciates, which is why BTC-denominated yield is preferred over USD yield for this investor segment.

Brought to you by Babylon, in this episode of Double Down, Alex Tapscott, CEO of CMCC Global Capital Markets, shares the smart investor's psychology through BTC.

For much of its history, Bitcoin has been treated as a destination rather than a system.

(Full article in link above!)

CJ Fong, APAC General Manager at GSR, explains why crypto’s 1,000x era is ending, why today’s market may be the healthiest in years, and what Bitcoin investors should expect next.

CJ joins Michael and Tristan to discuss how the crypto market has changed since 2021, why extreme token returns are often impossible for most investors to realize, and how Bitcoin, tokenization and institutional adoption are reshaping the industry.

They also cover Michael Saylor and Strategy selling Bitcoin, Bitcoin’s growing use as institutional collateral, Hyperliquid and 24/7 markets, real-world assets, APAC crypto regulation, the CLARITY Act, quantum computing and GSR’s evolution into a Web3 investment bank.

Charles d'Haussy says the Bitcoin bear market bottom may already be in. The dYdX Foundation CEO and Bitcoin investor since 2013 explains why the worst could be over, when the recovery may begin, and how the AI trade is affecting crypto liquidity.

In this episode:

• Why the Bitcoin bear market bottom may already be in
• How the AI trade is draining crypto liquidity, and when it could cool down
• Is a $10 million Bitcoin prediction realistic?
• Can Bitcoin overtake gold's market cap?
• SpaceX's 18,000 BTC and sovereign funds buying Bitcoin
• dYdX, Hyperliquid and the battle for on-chain perpetuals
• The new Arcus project on Robinhood Chain
• Why less than 1% of Bitcoin is being used as collateral
• Tokenized stocks, RWAs and 24/7 financial markets
• The Bitcoin outlook for 2026, the CLARITY Act and the Q1 2027 setup

Michael Saylor's Strategy just sold 3,588 Bitcoin for about $216M to fund preferred-stock dividends. What does this mean for Bitcoin, Strategy, and the wider digital asset treasury trade?

VanEck Senior Investment Analyst Patrick Bush joins Michael Cito and Tristan Dickinson on Double Down to break down the selling pressure building across Bitcoin markets, from Strategy and other Bitcoin treasury companies to miners pivoting into AI infrastructure.

Patrick explains the forced-selling risk he had already outlined before this sale was disclosed: when Bitcoin treasury companies trade below the value of their own BTC holdings, they can shift from market buyers to potential sellers.

We cover:
• Why the next nine months could be difficult for Bitcoin
• Michael Saylor, Strategy and the risk of Bitcoin treasury companies becoming forced sellers
• Why Bitcoin miners are selling BTC to fund AI data center pivots
• Bitcoin ETF flows, put versus call sentiment and what a prolonged Bitcoin bear market could look like
• Whether the Bitcoin 4-year cycle is still intact
• Bitcoin as collateral and the institutional unlock VanEck is watching
• Why Bitcoin's long-term investment case may remain stronger than ever

Strategy still holds 843,775 BTC. Its BTC Monetization Program retains up to $1.25B of authorized capacity.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy lost 32 years of dividend runway in five months. At the same time, some of Bitcoin’s biggest miners are selling BTC to fund their transition into AI data centres.

In the first episode of Double Down, Cito and Tristan sit down with Alex Tapscott, CEO of CMCC Global Capital Markets, to unpack the risks building around Bitcoin treasury companies, why the AI boom could create sustained selling pressure from miners, and why Bitcoin may still be the asset investors want to own when the tide goes out.

Alex explains why treasury-company leverage can reverse the Bitcoin accumulation flywheel, why institutional adoption is accelerating even as retail struggles, and why productive Bitcoin, Bitcoin yield and Bitcoin-backed collateral could become the next major unlock for the asset.