Ideas
Bitcoin is the ultimate savings asset.
Rich views Bitcoin as the most precious asset and a non-sovereign store of value with a fixed 21 million supply. He expects it to become a global savings account and collateral asset, with fiat debasement and macro shifts driving more stockpiling; thus he prefers owning and not selling Bitcoin, captured by his 'buy now, sell never' framing.
Bitcoin staking earns self-custodied passive yield.
Bitcoin has been negative carry, but staking with Core lets holders keep self-custody while time-locking BTC on Bitcoin L1 to earn block rewards and transaction fees. The only trade-off is liquidity for the lock period, with a minimum of one day, and there is no counterparty risk or giving up custody; this creates passive yield and unlocks new Bitcoin products.
Core DAO powers Bitcoin yield and DeFi.
Core is a Bitcoin-powered blockchain and the largest Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem, with about $500M TVL, 150 live projects, and 1M weekly active users. Its consensus blends Bitcoin hash, BTC, and CORE, and it aims to be the backend yield infrastructure for Bitcoin; dual staking drives demand for the CORE token and the ecosystem has grown to 52.6M addresses.
Dual staking boosts BTC and CORE yields.
Staking only Bitcoin yields a low base rate of 10-30 bips, but staking both Bitcoin and CORE earns much higher rates of about 4-6% through a nonlinear staking curve. This aligns the Bitcoin and Core networks, drives demand for CORE, and lets holders get higher yield without sacrificing institutional-grade custody.
Treasury company NAV premiums are compressing.
Bitcoin treasury companies have relied on NAV premium and financial engineering to acquire more Bitcoin, but the premium is compressing and the trade is crowded with new entrants launching daily. They will need other yield sources, and Core can work symbiotically to provide staking yield, reducing the attractiveness of the pure financial-engineering model.
Staking ETFs will attract Bitcoin yield demand.
Investors want Bitcoin exposure with passive yield in a traditional wrapper. Core already has staking ETPs live in Europe, and Rich expects staking ETFs soon, which should attract flows from investors who do not want to self-custody but want yield on their Bitcoin.
Bitcoin derivatives and structured products will grow.
Rich expects structured products that clip tails, with about 20% max drawdown and 60% max upside, because dampened-volatility Bitcoin is appealing to many investors. Additional yield sources should open a much larger Bitcoin derivatives market, which at scale could be 5-10x the spot market.
Bitcoin-backed loans enable buy now, sell never.
Bitcoin can be used as collateral to borrow dollars or stablecoins without selling, with lenders like Maple Finance lending against staked Bitcoin and protocols like Colend enabling borrowing against wrapped BTC. Because staking yield and Bitcoin appreciation reduce LTV over time, this creates self-repaying loans and supports a 'buy now, sell never' model.
Maple enables yield-bearing Bitcoin lending.
Maple Finance has a partnership with Core to lend against staked Bitcoin and to help launch the LSTBTC product, tokenizing the trade that combines Bitcoin, CORE acquisition, hedging, and yield. This makes Bitcoin leverage and yield more accessible while giving Maple a differentiated product pipeline.
Core creates a Bitcoin bond layer.
Core can serve as a Bitcoin bond layer, enabling asset managers like PIMCO or bond funds to construct Bitcoin fixed-income products. Maple tokenizes the trade and liquid staking derivatives are emerging, creating a base yield that can be used in lending and hedge-fund strategies while pushing up risk premiums for higher-risk Bitcoin lending.
LSTBTC improves Bitcoin basis trade returns.
Bitcoin basis trading is reliable but not highly profitable on its own. Using LSTBTC as yield-bearing collateral on large exchanges adds staking yield to the collateral, making the basis trade more profitable and creating a strong demand driver for LSTBTC.
Colend is leading Core lending growth.
Colend is the borrow/lend protocol at the center of the Core ecosystem and a key financial primitive. It has grown from nonexistent early last year to hundreds of millions in TVL, with an active market because it lets Bitcoiners borrow dollars or other assets against their Bitcoin.
Nawa unlocks Sharia-compliant Bitcoin DeFi.
Nawa Finance is the first Sharia-compliant DeFi aggregator on Core, unlocking the Islamic world and hundreds of millions or billions of people who have been barred from DeFi. It also addresses significant Bitcoin holdings in the region that were previously locked out of yield opportunities.
LSTBTC makes staked Bitcoin liquid collateral.
LSTBTC is a liquid staking token launched with Maple Finance that packages staked Bitcoin yield into a receipt token. It can be used as collateral in DeFi and on centralized exchanges, giving institutions and market makers yield-bearing Bitcoin collateral and eliminating the trade-off between institutional custody and best-in-class Bitcoin yield.
This The David Lin Report video, published July 08, 2025,
features Rich Rines
discussing BTC, Bitcoin staking via Core DAO, CORZ, Dual staking (BTC + CORE), Bitcoin treasury companies, Bitcoin staking ETFs, Bitcoin structured products, Bitcoin derivatives, Bitcoin-backed lending, MPL, Bitcoin fixed income, Bitcoin basis trade, Colend, Nawa Finance, LSTBTC.
14 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers:
Rich Rines
· Tickers:
BTC,
Bitcoin staking via Core DAO,
CORZ,
Dual staking (BTC + CORE),
Bitcoin treasury companies,
Bitcoin staking ETFs,
Bitcoin structured products,
Bitcoin derivatives,
Bitcoin-backed lending,
MPL,
Bitcoin fixed income,
Bitcoin basis trade,
Colend,
Nawa Finance,
LSTBTC
