Bitcoin Restaking Startup Lombard and Yield Protocol Veda Join Forces to Launch New DeFi Vault

The quest to use liquidity denominated in bitcoin in the decentralized finance ecosystem is in full swing.

Bitcoin (BTC) liquidity is set to become more accessible within the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, thanks to a collaboration between Bitcoin restaking startup Lombard and yield infrastructure protocol Veda.

The partnership will see the launch of a DeFi vault on Wednesday, designed to offer a one-click solution for holders of Lombard’s yield-bearing cryptocurrency, LBTC, to earn passive income. Backed 1:1 by BTC, LBTC’s yield is generated through rewards earned by BTC securing proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains, as per the protocol’s documentation.

The DeFi vault is essentially a smart contract that deploys capital in various DeFi strategies to generate yield, such as liquidity provisioning, lending, and even bridging to different chains.

“The vault is deploying LBTC capital across a range of DeFi opportunities, including Uniswap, Pendle, Morpho, GearBox… blue chip protocols that have existed for a while,” Sunand Raghupathi, co-founder of Veda, told Unchained.

A LBTC/WBTC liquidity pool was created on Uniswap on June 18, and has seen over $130,000 in volume over the last 24 hours, according to crypto trading analytics platform DexTools. The newly launched vault is already “deploying LBTC into Uniswap… to create liquidity between WBTC and LBTC,” said Raghupathi.

Initially, the yield for the new Lombard-Veda DeFi vault will be generated from users’ trading fees for swapping between LBTC and WBTC, with additional strategies set to be deployed soon.

Out of the 1,757 LBTC circulating supply, 709 wallet addresses already hold the token, according to blockchain data from Etherscan. Backed 1:1 with BTC, LBTC’s market capitalization is $109.2 million at current prices.

While LBTC is designed to earn its holders a yield, Raghupathi clarified that LBTC holders are currently earning “points,” and not yet accruing staking yield, which will be denominated in LBTC, according to Raghupathi.

“Points” are a mechanism used by crypto teams to track a user’s engagement and are used to determine how many tokens a user should receive in the event of a future token airdrop.

The integration between Veda and Lombard is “a mutually advantageous partnership,” Kevin He, co-founder of Bitcoin L2 network Bitlayer, told Unchained over Telegram, adding, “Veda gains access to substantial Bitcoin liquidity, while LBTC benefits from more yield-bearing opportunities.”