Fresh technology to drive bitcoin lending is preparing to launch with $500 million in pledged capital
— Base-layer blockchain Sui is introducing Hashi, an institutional-grade protocol enabling holders to leverage Bitcoin as collateral without transferring it off the Bitcoin network.
— The platform is debuting with $500 million in capital commitments from a coalition of more than 20 industry partners to guarantee substantial day-one liquidity.
— Hashi’s mainnet will deploy in stages, aiming at an enormous pool of approximately $1 trillion in dormant, institutional Bitcoin.
Bitcoin
Base-layer blockchain Sui is preparing to unveil Hashi, a new institutional network that permits holders to utilize Bitcoin as collateral for lending without relocating it from the Bitcoin ledger. The mainnet is scheduled to roll out in phases later this month.
To support the ecosystem, the initiative has already secured $500 million in capital commitments from a coalition of over 20 industry partners.
While these represent commitments rather than immediate deposits, the pre-pledged capital ensures that when the system goes live, markets can open with deep liquidity rather than starting from zero.
«Hashi is launching with serious capital and a coalition of industry leaders because institutions want to put Bitcoin to work without surrendering the protections they require,» Adeniyi Abiodun, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Mysten Labs, the original creator of Sui, stated in an official announcement.
The primary target for this capital is a massive pool of dormant wealth. Sui estimates that roughly $1 trillion worth of Bitcoin is currently sitting idle. Until now, institutional and corporate balance-sheet holders have lacked a compliant, transparent ecosystem to safely deploy their native Bitcoin in decentralized finance (DeFi).
This launch arrives amid a broader shift in Bitcoin-backed finance, where borrowing is extending far beyond speculative crypto trading. Bitcoin holders now employ bitcoin-collateralized loans to cover real-world expenses like university tuition, real estate acquisitions, and corporate working capital.
«Public companies and institutions hold enormous amounts of Bitcoin, but their ability to use that capital has been constrained by the technology available to them,» said Nathan McCauley, CEO and co-founder of Anchorage Digital, a day-one launch partner that also plans to supply stablecoin liquidity to the network.
«Connecting our institutional clients with Hashi represents a complete paradigm shift,» McCauley added.
Here’s how the system overcomes these institutional constraints. Instead of bridging across blockchains, users securely lock their BTC in a vault address directly on the Bitcoin blockchain. A 2-of-2 multisig secures this address, requiring cryptographic sign-off from both Hashi’s validators. Hashi also has a separate, independent guardian layer designed to monitor and slow suspicious collateral movements.
While the actual bitcoin remains safely frozen on the Bitcoin network, Hashi mints hBTC, a digital voucher token on Sui, backed directly by that deposit. This is where the lending activity begins.
Apps on Sui can use these hBTC vouchers to fuel lending, borrowing, credit markets, and real-world asset trading. When a user wants to exit, the hBTC voucher is permanently burned on Sui, which triggers the multisig to safely unlock and release the original bitcoin back to the user on the Bitcoin network.
To meet strict institutional compliance and security standards, Hashi has undergone rigorous vetting. Security firm Certora formally verified Hashi’s smart contracts, while another firm, CommonPrefix, reviewed the cryptography of its multi-party computation (MPC) protocol.
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Why it matters:
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
