Within the early days, holding Bitcoin in your stability sheet felt just like the boldest transfer you possibly can make as an organization. Corporations locked in publicity to a scarce, appreciating asset with the conviction it’s the very best type of cash. However now a brand new paradigm is rising: utilizing Bitcoin as cash, not simply as a long-duration asset reserve. Because of the Lightning Community, Bitcoin treasury firms can start to earn native, non-custodial yield by supporting the funds infrastructure itself, an entire breakthrough for firms seeking to put their BTC treasury technique to work.
Within the brief time period, Bitcoin treasury firms acquire a brand new yield supply by deploying idle BTC into Lightning liquidity channels, incomes routing charges and transaction quantity rewards. Additionally they enhance treasury effectivity by conserving capital liquid and revenue-generating, fairly than passively held. This turns their Bitcoin from a dormant retailer of worth into productive digital capital that compounds each monetary and strategic returns.
The power to leverage native bitcoin funds for income progress issues in a approach that transcends mere yield. It aligns the incentives of treasurers, funds firms, and the broader Bitcoin mission: the extra firms route funds and supply liquidity, the higher the Lightning community turns into, encouraging extra utilization, adoption, and worth. The funds stack of Bitcoin-as-money is not hypothetical. This week, Sq. introduced that starting November 10, all 4 million+ small companies with Sq. terminals will likely be enabled to just accept Bitcoin funds utilizing Lightning. Earlier this 12 months, at Bitcoin 2025, Money App reported that already 25% of its Bitcoin funds had been processed over Lightning.
That mixture — treasury firms deploying Bitcoin as productive capital, plus fee quantity scaling through Lightning-enabled service provider — represents a robust inflection level for the Bitcoin economic system.
From passive reserve to energetic utility
What does it seem like in observe? A treasury firm holding Bitcoin can lend or deploy that liquidity into the Lightning community. They will promote liquidity to market individuals, new entrants, fee originators, client wallets, that want inbound or outbound channel depth, utilizing instruments like Amboss. As funds fly by way of the community, treasurers additionally earn routing charges: each fee forwarded is a small reward, compounding with scale.
In contrast to custodial yield merchandise (which regularly introduce counterparty danger or centralized management), this yield is native to the community. Custody is all the time maintained by merely putting liquidity within the community and letting market individuals route by way of the customers node. Not solely does this uphold the Bitcoin ethos of sovereignty, it enhances Bitcoin’s utility.
Contemplate two proof factors:
- LQWD (a publicly traded firm) has disclosed 24% annualized yield of their filings. Their conservative baseline fashions illustrate how routing and liquidity provision can produce important returns.
- Money App / Block has publicly highlighted a 9.79% yield on Lightning: their progress in Lightning-processed funds suggests upward stress on demand for liquidity, which yields direct income upside for liquidity suppliers and node operators.
These case research validate that non-custodial yield on bitcoin just isn’t theoretical, it’s taking place now, and the momentum is actual.
The virtuous circle: funds, liquidity, and community progress
As extra retailers settle for Bitcoin through Lightning, fee quantity will increase, and with it, the necessity for liquidity that treasury firms are uniquely positioned to provide. This rising demand for liquidity fuels extra routing exercise, which in flip enhances node efficiency, channel connectivity, latency, and reliability throughout the community.
A current Constancy Digital Belongings report highlights how Lightning is increasing Bitcoin’s use circumstances from passive store-of-value to an energetic, scalable medium of change, one the place liquidity suppliers play a central position in enhancing the fee expertise. Higher infrastructure attracts extra customers and frictionless transactions, reinforcing a flywheel of progress anchored in Bitcoin’s mounted provide and utility as sound cash.
That flywheel works by way of alignment: treasury firms deploying capital, retailers adopting Lightning, and customers in search of prompt, low-cost settlement. The current Money App and Sq. integration could be the largest catalyst but, connecting tens of millions of retailers to that community in a single sweeping movement.
Why this yield is in contrast to some other
- Non-custodial: Customers / treasury firms by no means relinquish management. Yield accrues organically from community utility, not from trusting a 3rd social gathering.
- Bitcoin-native compounding: The asset each customers and treasury firms maintain is the asset producing revenue. There isn’t any swapping or changing tokens; Bitcoin does all of the work within the community.
- Shortage leverage: With Bitcoin capped at 21 million, every extra unit of productive capital turns into extra significant in a world of accelerating community utilization.
- Community alignment: Yielding through routing straight reinforces the well being of the Lightning funds infrastructure, resulting in much less friction, extra liquidity and higher UX.
- Scalability upside: As a result of each added fee and route is additive, the yield alternative scales because the community scales.
These properties distinction sharply with mounted yields, staking derivatives, or custodial curiosity accounts, which regularly introduce centralization, dilution, or counterparty danger.
The challenges and guardrails
This mannequin just isn’t with out its challenges, nevertheless.
Working Lightning Community nodes calls for technical experience to handle channel methods, deal with failed HTLCs (Hash Time Locked Contracts) and rebalance liquidity, though B2B enterprise options can simplify these challenges, making it so companies should not have the take care of this complexity.
Poorly positioned liquidity dangers idling or missed alternatives, exposing capital to inefficiencies. Community congestion and aggressive price undercutting can compress routing charges, making a differentiated technique and powerful repute important for achievement. In the meantime, Bitcoin’s market volatility, pushed by unpredictable macro shifts, poses dangers for liquidity suppliers regardless of yields being denominated in Bitcoin.
Nonetheless, these dangers are properly understood operational and infrastructure challenges within the Lightning neighborhood; the upside makes them price navigating.
Shifting on from the HODL-only mindset
If you happen to handle a Bitcoin treasury, now’s the second to shift from passive reserve to energetic participant. Don’t simply HODL, put your Bitcoin to work for the community. Consider your node technique. Associate with Lightning infrastructure suppliers. Discover novel routing methods. Stake your declare within the funds layer of Bitcoin.
The convergence we’re seeing, from Money App’s push to Lightning funds to the increasing alternative for native yield, alerts the beginning of the Lightning-era for treasuries. The businesses that lean in now will reap benefits: yield, differentiation, and mission alignment in a single bundle.
When treasuries cease treating Bitcoin as a static asset and begin utilizing it as a dwelling community, they uncover what’s been there all alongside: a yield engine powered by actual funds, not hypothesis.