Stanford professor's new project secures $15 million in funding, Bitcoin collateralized lending is coming

【Crypto World】The imagination space of Bitcoin as collateral has opened a new window again.

Stanford University professor David Tse-led decentralized protocol project has just completed a $15 million funding round, led by well-known venture capital firm a16z Crypto. This team, founded in 2021, has now expanded to over 40 members.

Their core product is called BTCVaults, which addresses an old pain point: Bitcoin holders want to generate income from their assets. The traditional approach requires going through third parties like exchanges or stablecoin issuers, which also means losing control of the assets. BTCVaults rewrites this logic—allowing holders to directly use Bitcoin as collateral while maintaining full control of their assets, with the earnings from lending flowing directly into their accounts.

Interestingly, this protocol plans to integrate with a leading lending protocol, Aave, in Q2 2026. By then, the liquidity mining potential in the Bitcoin ecosystem will be even greater. In an interview, David Tse emphasized that the ultimate goal is to use cutting-edge technology to enable users to bypass intermediaries and let Bitcoin truly work for its holders.

The project currently has no revenue, but judging from the lineup of investors and the technical roadmap, this breakthrough may be imminent.