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white paper
Bitcoin & Yield Opportunities
A Guide to Institutional Bitcoin Yield Strategies, June 2025
As institutional adoption of Bitcoin accelerates, so does the demand to generate yield on BTC holdings. This whitepaper from the DEC Institute explores the evolution of Bitcoin from a speculative asset to a productive one, outlining strategies that enable institutions to earn yield while managing risk, compliance, and custody.
By Q4 2024, Bitcoin ETFs held over $27 billion in assets, yet continued to offer 0% native yield. To address this gap, investors can explore nine institutional-grade strategies for generating yield on BTC — including futures arbitrage, covered calls, Lightning routing, and DeFi opportunities. Each strategy is clearly compared in terms of risk, liquidity, and returns, with a strong emphasis on secure, liquid, and compliant solutions designed specifically for institutional investors.
This whitepaper explores how Bitcoin is evolving from a simple store-of-value into a yield-generating asset, with a focus on institutional adoption. It outlines key Bitcoin yield strategies tailored for institutions, including exchange-based lending through CeFi platforms and prime brokers, futures basis trading via cash-and-carry arbitrage, and delta-neutral funding rate arbitrage using perpetual futures. Additional strategies covered include collateralized Bitcoin-backed loans, covered call selling for option premium income, earning routing fees through the Lightning Network, and generating yield through DeFi protocols using wrapped or native BTC. The paper concludes with a comprehensive comparison of these strategies across dimensions such as risk, return, and liquidity.
As institutional adoption of Bitcoin accelerates, so does the demand to generate yield on BTC holdings. This whitepaper from the DEC Institute explores the evolution of Bitcoin from a speculative asset to a productive one, outlining strategies that enable institutions to earn yield while managing risk, compliance, and custody.
By Q4 2024, Bitcoin ETFs held over $27 billion in assets, yet continued to offer 0% native yield. To address this gap, investors can explore nine institutional-grade strategies for generating yield on BTC — including futures arbitrage, covered calls, Lightning routing, and DeFi opportunities. Each strategy is clearly compared in terms of risk, liquidity, and returns, with a strong emphasis on secure, liquid, and compliant solutions designed specifically for institutional investors.
This whitepaper explores how Bitcoin is evolving from a simple store-of-value into a yield-generating asset, with a focus on institutional adoption. It outlines key Bitcoin yield strategies tailored for institutions, including exchange-based lending through CeFi platforms and prime brokers, futures basis trading via cash-and-carry arbitrage, and delta-neutral funding rate arbitrage using perpetual futures. Additional strategies covered include collateralized Bitcoin-backed loans, covered call selling for option premium income, earning routing fees through the Lightning Network, and generating yield through DeFi protocols using wrapped or native BTC. The paper concludes with a comprehensive comparison of these strategies across dimensions such as risk, return, and liquidity.
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