Hex Trust, a fully licensed digital asset services provider, has partnered with the Stacks Asia Foundation to capitalize on the $180 billion market opportunity around the Bitcoin ecosystem.<\/p>\n
As part of the partnership, the custody platform will gain support for the Stacks layer and all related digital assets and implement future on-ramps for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.<\/p>\n
The partnership signals growing institutional interest and a maturing industry around Bitcoin-based DeFi, according to Kyle Ellicott, investor relations lead at Stacks. He told Cointelegraph:<\/p>\n
Ellicott told Cointelegraph that the entrance of Hex Trust \u201cspeaks to the increase in consumer demand in Asia\u201d for Bitcoin ecosystem products. <\/p>\n
The partnership could also enhance the \u201cfinancial utility of Bitcoin for our institutional clients,\u201d wrote Calvin Shen, the chief commercial officer at Hex Trust.<\/p>\n Hex Trust partners with Stacks Asia. Source: Stacks<\/em><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Similar integrations could add more utility to the Bitcoin network in a growing paradigm known as Bitcoin DeFi or BTCFi. In this case, one of the first integrations will add support for SIP-010, which is the fungible token standard on Stacks \u2014 enabling easily trackable and transferable tokens.<\/p>\n Interest in building DeFi capabilities on the Bitcoin network has been growing since the 2024\u00a0 Bitcoin halving<\/a>, which introduced the Runes protocol \u2014 the first fungible token standard on the Bitcoin blockchain.<\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>Bitcoin\u2019s path to $80K fueled by bullish derivatives trends<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Institutional crypto demand has been on the rise in the Asian markets, growing \u201cexponentially each year,\u201d according to Stacks\u2019 Ellicott.<\/p>\n The growing institutional interest was part of Stacks\u2019 success in securing partnerships across the continent for service providers interested in institutional offers, added Ellicott. He further explained:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Asian markets have been foundational for crypto since its early inception, and the institutional demand grows exponentially each year. The rise of the Bitcoin Ecosystem which has since much of its development in Asia\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>Stablecoins essential for US dollar\u2019s future, says Paxos CEO<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Numerous other projects are building more utility around Bitcoin, including Hermetica, which launched the first Bitcoin-backed synthetic dollar<\/a>, USDh, which debuted with a 25% yield for investors.<\/p>\n Hermetica is a Stacks-native Bitcoin DeFi protocol. The firm\u2019s CEO and founder, Jakob Schillinger, said that Bitcoin DeFi could be the next significant opportunity in crypto.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe Bitcoin DeFi will match and eclipse the size of Ethereum DeFi in the next 5 years,\u201d Schillinger told Cointelegraph, adding:<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re already seeing months where Ordinals trading volumes are higher than volumes for Ethereum and Solana NFTs combined. With over $1 [trillion] in latent BTC capital, Bitcoin DeFi is primed for explosive growth.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Binance Labs and Tim Draper-backed Zest Protocol<\/a> also launched a Bitcoin-based token that pays staking yield for holders<\/p>\nBitcoins Institutional crypto demand is on the rise in Asia<\/h2>\n