Institutional capital is still pouring in, BTCfi is compounding, and July→August delivered something we’ve waited years to see: Bitcoin with yield - packaged for treasurers, listed for public markets, and usable across payments rails.

Market pulse

Bitcoin pushed to fresh highs in mid-July and has held most gains as ETF demand and policy clarity firmed up the bid. U.S. spot ETFs posted multi-billion July prints (including one two-day record) - evidence the buys are increasingly institutional.

This is what a maturing market looks like. Big, regulated buyers (ETFs) and clearer rules are doing most of the lifting, so the trend feels steadier and more “institutional.” The late-July dip you can see on the Farside chart was a brief air pocket, a quick outflow that was followed by new money coming back in. In short: smoother most days, the odd bump when funds rebalance, and a generally positive tone driven by professional flows rather than hype.

BTCfi is now a real stack (and yield is the unlock)

The quiet breakthrough of the summer: Bitcoin yield, on compliant rails. Maple opened direct access to its BTC Yield program for institutions (more than 1,500 BTC deposited; ~5.1% APY paid in BTC), turning formerly idle treasury coins into productive assets—no wrapping, no CeFi rehypothecation.

Zoom out and BTCfi’s TVL has climbed from a rounding error to a multi-billion footprint, measured variously in the $6–7B range by July, driven by staking/credit primitives and better cross-chain routes. (Methodologies differ; DefiLlama remains the cleanest public lens.)

Core Ventures’s Portco is on the move

• Molten: went live on Core in late July positioning itself as the “Super DEX” for BTCfi
• Fiamma: announced mainnet launch of the BitVM2-based Fiamma Bridge on Aug 6, enabling trust-minimized BTC movement to multiple chains. The original press release is here
• BITS: in mid-July, BITS partnered with Core Ventures to bring an institutional BTC-yield marketplace on-chain; Core’s newsletter captured the announcement
• ASX’s first yield-bearing NFT collection sold out in under an hour during its public round - and all eyes are now on the next mint dropping August 21. We’re super excited to be backing this project and can’t wait to see the momentum build.

Core ventures announced BTC‑FI, a flagship accelerator for teams building the next era of staking, yield, and liquidity on Core.

Net effect: the rails, liquidity, and incentives are lining up on Core blockchain, making BTCfi usable for both builders and conservative capital.

BTC-FI offers:

• 14-week remote program
• Funding to support your build - up to $100K
• Hands-on guidance from top-tier operators, investors, and mentors
• Direct access to Core’s ecosystem  

Applications are now open → https://corechain.ventures/accelerator

Institutional adoption: from proxies to positions

A key July report from Keyrock (Harvey & Clemente) unpacked the rise of Bitcoin Treasury Companies (BTC-TCs): ~725k BTC now sits in corporate treasuries, about 3.6% of supply - and despite headline-grabbing raises, their average daily price impact in 2025 was under 1%. Translation: the market is absorbing these balance-sheet buyers better than many expected.

Reuters tallied $3.4B of Bitcoin ETF inflows in the month, both clear signals that the “model-portfolio rails” era is here.

Public-company balances keep climbing, too. Strategy (MicroStrategy) sits atop the leaderboard with roughly 628,791 BTC; Financial Times pegs 130+ listed firms at ~$87B of BTC, proof that proxies haven’t gone away even as direct ETF access proliferates

Real-world utility: payments and settlement switch on

Payments are no longer hypothetical. PayPal rolled out Pay with Crypto on July 28, instant conversion, 100+ supported assets/wallets, and aggressively lower cross-border costs—shifting BTC (and stablecoins) from portfolio line-item to working capital rail. Visa simultaneously expanded stablecoin settlement support (more coins, more chains), cementing card-network on-ramps for onchain money.

Bitcoin Treasuries

We’re seeing a fresh wave of Bitcoin treasury companies form and go public. Adam Back’s Bitcoin Standard Treasury Co. announced a $2.1B SPAC plan that mixes fiat financing with a bitcoin-denominated PIPE, aiming to list on Nasdaq with 30k+ BTC, putting it in the top tier of corporate holders. In Asia, Taiwan-listed WiseLink led a $10M raise for Top Win International, billed as the first Taiwan public-company–backed BTC treasury effort. And in the U.S., Nakamoto closed its merger with KindlyMD to become a publicly traded Bitcoin treasury vehicle. Together, these moves broaden the corporate-treasury playbook, and they’re attracting healthy debate about discipline and leverage across the “digital asset treasury” space.

Six major buckets hold meaningful chunks of BTC today, aggregate corporate treasuries, the single largest corporate holder, the largest spot ETF, and governments, so you can gauge how concentrated ownership has become and how much supply is effectively “spoken for.”

This shows that the mood is constructive, institutional, and steadily legitimizing, with healthy respect for concentration and policy risk.

• Confidence is high: big, regulated buckets (ETFs, public companies, some governments) are holding a lot of BTC. That signals mainstream comfort and long-term intent.
• Participation is broader: steady ETF inflows say traditional investors are still coming in through familiar, compliant rails.
• Market feels more “institutional”: with ETFs/CME in the mix, the day-to-day tone is more professional, with more hedging and risk controls.
• Cautious optimism: people are constructive, but mindful of a few very large holders—so risk teams stay alert for headlines or policy shifts.
• Builders’ green light: this mix (ETFs + corporates + policy progress) tells founders and partners the audience is growing and the infrastructure is maturing.

This begs the question: what do these companies do next with their Bitcoin treasuries? Do they simply hold as a strategic reserve, or start putting BTC to work, posting it as collateral, running basis/hedged carry programs, or tapping listed yield products with clear disclosures?

We’re watching how boards set guardrails (custody, leverage, duration) and how transparently they report outcomes. In short, we’re curious to see how these balances are used, not just held, as the corporate Bitcoin playbook matures.

Policy tailwinds

U.S. policy momentum continued into late July: Congress advanced stablecoin/market-structure packages, and payments networks leaned in). For pensions and insurers, those two pieces remove the biggest blockers: legal uncertainty and operational risk. Expect investment committees to start updating policy documents, running limited pilots (ETFs, stablecoin settlement), and onboarding custodians and data vendors. The tone shifts from “interesting but off-limits” to “permissible and testable.” Net effect: a cautious but durable green light for mainstream, institutional participation.

What it means

• Yield unlocks allocation. Once BTC pays a defensible, auditable yield (Maple; listed ETPs), it shifts from “dead asset” to “productive treasury tool,” lowering hurdle rates for CIOs. maple.financeValour
• Pro rails dominate discovery. ETF + CME flows now set the tone; retail follows. Expect quieter day-to-day with occasional, sharp dislocations when hedges scramble. farside.co.ukCME Group
• Utility is real. With PayPal’s rollout and Visa’s settlement expansion, the onchain money stack is colliding with mainstream payments. PayPal InvestorsVisa Investor Relations