Bitcoin‘s (CRYPTO: BTC) towering $1.5 trillion market cap has long outpaced its rivals, yet its decentralized finance (DeFi) utility has lagged due to slow infrastructure development and regulatory hurdles, according to Ryan Chow, co-founder of Solv Protocol
Speaking from his vantage point at Solv (SOLV), a platform bridging Bitcoin to DeFi with $160 million in trading volume, Chow pinpointed the four-year maturation of Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH)-based DeFi and a recent regulatory thaw as key factors now unlocking Bitcoin’s potential.
His insights highlight an industry poised for a Bitcoin-driven shift, fueled by lending and staking applications.
In an interview with Benzinga on the sidelines of Eth Denver, Chow traced Bitcoin’s delayed DeFi ascent to foundational challenges.
“The potential… we start to unlock Bitcoin’s potential is from like 2024,” he said, noting that “DeFi needs some time to develop… after the past four years, most of the DeFi infrastructure [was] built on Ethereum and some other EVM-compatible chains and also Solana (CRYPTO: SOL).”
Unlike Ethereum, which boasts mature smart contract capabilities, Bitcoin’s mainnet lacks this functionality, stunting its DeFi integration.
Solv addresses this by wrapping Bitcoin—via centralized solutions like Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) and Binance—onto EVM chains, where smart contracts enable transparent financial services like lending and staking.
Regulatory evolution has also played a pivotal role.
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Chow linked Bitcoin’s DeFi awakening to the U.S. administration’s pro-crypto signals under President Trump, elected months prior.
“After Trump really kind of as a president… the U.S. administration [gave] a lot of positive kind of signal, more and more people in this cycle… really care about Bitcoin,” he said.
This shift, coupled with nations recognizing Bitcoin as a reserve asset, has redirected focus from altcoins and meme coins to Bitcoin’s financial utility.
Solv capitalizes on this, offering SolvBTC for users to stake and earn yields up to 10%, a trend Chow sees accelerating as Bitcoin holders prioritize liquidity over selling.
The practical implications are clear in lending, which Chow flagged as a cornerstone use case.
With Bitcoin increasingly viewed as a reserve akin to gold—bolstered by potential U.S. Bitcoin reserve policies—users are loath to part with it.
Instead, they borrow against it, using DeFi platforms like Solv to access liquidity in seconds, permissionlessly.
This contrasts with traditional finance’s custodial delays, though Chow acknowledged trade-offs: centralized options like Fidelity’s FBTC offer security, while DeFi prioritizes accessibility.
Outside the U.S., where access to Bitcoin services is limited, DeFi’s role grows, with Solv building an on-chain Bitcoin reserve to serve global users trustlessly.
Chow’s perspective reflects a maturing DeFi ecosystem, where Bitcoin’s integration hinges on technical bridges and regulatory tailwinds—finally aligning its market dominance with practical utility.
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