Over the past year, the Bitcoin Renaissance has brought significant attention to BTCfi, or “Bitcoin DeFi” applications. Despite the hype, very few of these applications have delivered on their promises or managed to retain a meaningful number of “actual” users.

To put things into perspective, the leading lending platform for Bitcoin assets, Liquidium, allows users to borrow against their Runes, Ordinals, and BRC-20 assets. Where does the yield come from, you ask? Just like any other loan, borrowers pay an interest rate to lenders in exchange for their Bitcoin. Additionally, to ensure the security of the loans, they are always overcollateralized by the Bitcoin assets themselves.

How big is Bitcoin DeFi right now? It depends on your perspective.

In about 12 months, Liquidium has executed over 75,000 loans, representing more than $360 million in total loan volume, and paid over $6.3 million in native BTC interest to lenders.

For BTCfi to be considered “real,” I would argue that these numbers need to grow exponentially and become comparable to those on other chains such as Ethereum or Solana. (Although, I firmly believe that over time, comparisons will become irrelevant as all economic activity will ultimately settle on Bitcoin.)

That said, these achievements are impressive for a protocol that’s barely a year old, operating on a chain where even the slightest mention of DeFi often meets with extreme skepticism. For additional context, Liquidium is already outpacing altcoin competitors such as NFTfi, Arcade, and Sharky in volume.

Bitcoin is evolving in real time, without requiring changes to its base protocol — I’m here for it.

After a rocky start, Runes are now responsible for the majority of loans taken out on Liquidium, outpacing both Ordinals and BRC-20s. Runes is a significantly more efficient protocol that offers a lighter load on the Bitcoin blockchain and delivers a slightly improved user experience. The enhanced user experience provided by Runes not only simplifies the process for existing users, but also attracts a substantial number of new users that would be willing to interest on-chain in a more complex way. In contrast, BRC-20 struggled to acquire new users due to its complexity and less intuitive design. Having additional financial infrastructure like P2P loans is therefore marking a step forward in the usability and adoption of Runes, and potentially other Bitcoin backed assets down the line.

The volume of loans on Liquidium has consistently increased over the past year, with Runes now comprising the majority of activity on the platform.

Ok so Runes are now the dominant asset backing Bitcoin native loans, why should I care? Is this good for Bitcoin?

I would argue that, regardless of your personal opinion about Runes or the on-chain degen games happening right now, the fact that real people trust the Bitcoin blockchain to take out decentralized loans denominated in Bitcoin should make freedom lovers stand up and cheer.

We’re winning.

Bitcoiners have always asserted that no other blockchain can match Bitcoin’s security guarantees. Now, others are beginning to see this too, bringing new forms of economic activity on-chain. This is undeniably bullish.

Moreover, all transactions are natively secured on the Bitcoin blockchain—no wrapping, no bridging, just Bitcoin. We should encourage and support people who are building in this way.

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

Everyone has their own unique sense of style, but if you are wearing Bitcoin merch like the shirt in the X post below out in public — you should probably stop doing so.

This Bitcoin shirt is cringe as fuck.

Have fun getting 7 dollar wrench attacked. pic.twitter.com/zRlT2CFrIg

— Breadman (@BTCBreadMan) January 11, 2025

I agree with this post in that this shirt is cringe as fuck and will only bring unwanted attention.

Most people don’t understand Bitcoin and the lingo adjacent to it. If you’re wearing this out in public, the majority of people are not even going to understand it and will move on with their day, completely forgetting about it. So if you’re wearing the shirt, you’re not really flexing as hard as you think.

But some who will see you wearing it will know what it means, and this may lead to bad consequences.

Wearing a shirt that broadcasts to everyone that you own a full bitcoin (or basically $100,000, at the time of writing, in the form of a bearer asset) will likely just put a target on your back.

Don’t believe me?

This past November, the CEO of the Canadian company WonderFi was kidnapped and held for ransom. And more recently, a Pakistani crypto trader was kidnapped and forced to pay $340,000 to the kidnappers from his Binance account.

I’m not trying to scare anyone, but these things can happen, and you should at least avoid putting yourself in such a situation.

These criminals may or may not know how Bitcoin works, and it’s probably worse if they don’t. Because they might think you have it all on one exchange, or that you have your private keys located in one place that is easy to obtain, therefore thinking you are probably an easy target. And if you tell them you physically cannot give up your coins, and they don’t believe you, things could get ugly quick.

I’m not saying to never talk to anyone about Bitcoin ever or to be 100% secretive about it — I mean, I’m a public figure in this space and have thought through how to best limit the chances of something bad like this happening to me. The security of your bitcoin is important, but also is your personal security. Luckily for me, I am an American and have my second amendment rights. Protecting my Bitcoin from a potential $5 wrench attack is a lot easier with a firearm.

Upgraded my bitcoin security today by buying a Glock 19

— Nikolaus (@nikcantmine) December 26, 2020

If you are a proud owner of one full bitcoin, it’s fine to celebrate it, as that is a feat that most people on the planet will never be able to achieve.

My advice to you, though, is to celebrate it in a way that is more private, like with no one more than your family and very close friends that you trust. You can post online on X or Reddit anonymously about it if you really want to have a deeper conversation about it or to get the dopamine from all the other anons congratulating you on the accomplishment.

Don’t tell people how much bitcoin you own, and definitely don’t wear shirts that disclose it. Just stay humble and stack more bitcoin.

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.