What is BTC.b?
BTC.b is a permissionless, bridged version of Bitcoin initially deployed to Avalanche. It has since been adopted as a Layer 0 asset, with liquidity pools popping up on Arbitrum and Matic.
Currently, 6000 bitcoin live on Avalanche, this is significant because it is almost 1000 more than Lightning Network. Lightning Network has been active for 5 years, BTC.b is barely even 6 months old.
The BTC.b asset is a significantly better quality asset than wBTC. Wrapped BTC (wBTC) is a custodial asset managed by a centralized party (bingo). BTC.b is completely decentralized as it is a bridge smart contract. No one party owns all the BTC backing the BTC.b, unlike with BTC. The keys to this bridge are held by 8 parties, in a decentralized manner. This is highly more secure and in line with the crypto ethos of decentralization and self-governance.
Strategies
Being a solid store of value, BTC.b is ripe for DeFi utilization. I will not discuss your traditional Aave loan strategy for a measly 1.5% APY. I also won’t be discussing liquidity provision, that is not a BTC.b strategy I partake in.
What I will be discussing are strategies from Moremoney Finance, Delta Prime, Yield Yak, and Benqi Finance.
Moremoney
A unique CDP with an interest-bearing stablecoin in iMONEY. Using BTC.b as collateral, we can borrow MONEY against our normally idle bitcoin. This simple loan strategy comes with risk, monitoring LTV and the health of a position is key for managing risk over time.
One strategy I use with Moremoney collateral positions is MONEY leveraged borrowing. In the Platypus Finance money market, there is an opportunity to swap MONEY for USDC, and deposit USDC as collateral for borrowing USP. This USP can yield close to 25% APY as of launch on Echidna Finance.
The underlying BTC.b strategy can be altered depending on risk tolerance or platform preference. Below, you will see the options for how to deposit BTC.b to accrue baseline auto-compounding yield, alongside gains made from stable farming.
Delta Prime
This under-collateralized loan platform allows for up to 5x leveraged yield farming and longs/shorts with collateral. This means BTC.b can be utilized in a number of interesting ways.
BTC.b used in a conservative leveraged yield farming strategy is a unique opportunity to increase exposure to auto-compounding yield from platypus swap fees. Supplying BTC.b and borrowing AVAX reduced risk as they have correlated price action. However, it is not immune to AVAX outperforming BTC.b and causing liquidation due to borrowed asset appreciation. Supplying BTC.b and borrowing USDC pose a downside risk for liquidation if collateral price drops and loan health becomes unhealthy.
Overall, if you are bearish on AVAX relative to BTC.b, borrow AVAX. If you are bullish on both, and not bearish on short-term BTC.b price action, borrowing USDC may make more sense. Similar to Moremoney, LTV, and loan health are essential measures to watch when utilizing undercollateralized loans of Delta Prime.
Yield Yak
This is the tried and true method of yield farm aggregation and ease of use. Yield yak offers 1-click auto-compounding solutions for a plethora of tokens, including BTC.b. Some strategies include farms for BTC.b on Aave, Benqi, and Platypus. each strategy offers a unique source of yield.
Benqi Finance
Depositing BTC.b on Benqi is a simple, no-brainer play for a reliable money market on Avalanche. They offer a receipt token for deposited BTC.b called qiBTCb. This token allows for two things: the first is QI and AVAX rewards from the Benqi platform. the second component is the opportunity to deposit the qiBTCb token in a lending platform.
The strategy here would be to deposit BTC.b on Benqi for qiBTCb. Use this to borrow YUSD from Yeti Finance. Using this YUSD, you can replicate similar strategies to MONEY borrows. You can also utilize YUSD for the stability pool on the Yeti Finance page. This pool is native rewards interest for YUSD depositors.
Thanks for reading my BTC.b strategy substack for AVAX investing. I hope this was useful and provides insight into some potential opportunities to use Bitcoin in DeFi on AVAX. In no way do strategies represent financial advice, though each protocol referenced is personally vetted and used in my own DeFi plays. Thanks again!