SUI Is Pushing Bitcoin Finance with Hashi

@SuiNetwork has officially launched the Hashi testnet, a protocol designed to put native $BTC to work on the Sui blockchain without requiring holders to bridge or wrap their assets. The move represents one of the more concrete attempts to bring Bitcoin's substantial liquidity into decentralised finance at an institutional scale.

Targeting Dormant Bitcoin Capital

The scale of the opportunity Hashi is chasing is significant. According to onchain data from DefiLlama cited in a Cointelegraph report, only around 0.22% of Bitcoin's total supply, roughly $3.07 billion, is currently deployed in DeFi protocols. With Bitcoin's market cap exceeding $1 trillion, Hashi's backers argue that the gap between available capital and active deployment is too large to ignore.

First announced in March 2026, Hashi is developed primarily by Mysten Labs, the core contributor to Sui. Its central proposition is straightforward: allow $BTC holders to lend, borrow, and earn yield against their holdings using on-chain smart contracts, without relying on wrapped or synthetic representations of the asset. The collateral stays on the Bitcoin network, while Sui manages the cryptographic and programmatic rights.

Guardian Layer and Institutional Backing

The testnet rollout introduces what the team calls the "Guardian Layer," a defense-in-depth security model built around a 2-of-2 multisig requirement between Hashi validators and independent guardians. The structure is designed to remove the trust assumptions that have historically made institutional capital cautious about DeFi participation.

The institutional line-up behind the project is broad. As reported by KuCoin, Cumberland, SwissBorg, and Fluid are among the latest partners, joining existing backers that include BitGo, Blockdaemon, and Ledger, bringing the total partner count to more than 20. SwissBorg is focused on connecting its high-net-worth client base to BTC-backed lending products, while Fluid is targeting institutional-grade lending markets using Bitcoin collateral on Sui.

The testnet phase is intended to widen testing to institutions, custodians, and DeFi teams under realistic conditions before any significant capital moves to mainnet. Sui-native protocols including Suilend, Scallop, and NAVI Protocol have signalled plans to integrate Hashi once it is live at scale.

For $BTC holders, the pitch is the ability to access credit and yield without selling or moving their Bitcoin off its native network.

Sources:
Sui Blog: A New Era of Bitcoin-Based Finance Begins: Meet Hashi on Sui
TradingView/Cointelegraph: Bitcoin finance protocol Hashi launches on Sui with BitGo, FalconX backing
KuCoin: Sui's Bitcoin financial primitive, Hashi, will launch its testnet in July