LiquidSat
A financing system for Bitcoin holders that tries to unlock credit without asking users to abandon Bitcoin’s trust assumptions.
Snapshot
Status
MVP
Type
bitcoin-native finance
Timeframe
2025–present
What I Owned
Product
lending flows, borrower/lender lifecycle, UX framing
Protocol
PSBT-based loan logic, settlement assumptions, risk bands
GTM
borrower/LP discovery, ecosystem positioning, capital-first launch
Partnerships
BTC ecosystems, LPs, foundations, audit support
Narrative
trust-minimized BTC liquidity, “Bitcoin in. Liquidity out.”
Problem
Less than 1% of BTC is actively used in DeFi, while most BTCFi systems still depend on wrapped, bridged, or custodial models. The gap is not just about capital access; it is about unlocking liquidity without breaking Bitcoin’s trust model.
Journey
Started by mapping the BTCFi landscape across custodial and non-custodial systems, their trade-offs, and where trust actually breaks.
Studied existing protocols deeply to understand how they structure liquidity, where assumptions creep in, and why most systems fail to stay aligned with Bitcoin’s core guarantees.
Spoke with 50+ participants across foundations, borrowers, and infra teams, explored BTCFi theses with ecosystem players, reached out to LPs and borrowers via LinkedIn and X, and validated demand with 20+ borrowers, including miners and family office consultants, collectively managing about $40M in borrowing demand.
Participated in Core Buildathon as a winner, where early conviction and ecosystem support accelerated development.
Designed the entire product narrative, brand, and UX, built the early website, flows, and UI journeys using AI tools and Figma, and defined the end-to-end user experience and system flows.
On the technical side, Piyush led research into PSBT coordination, explicit signing flows, and custody visibility, ensuring the architecture enforces trust boundaries instead of abstracting them away.
The system evolved into a constraint-led design where every decision was shaped by what can be verified and enforced, not just what improves capital efficiency.
Wins & Failures
Wins
✓Designed a truly non-custodial, bilateral BTC financing system unlike existing closed or semi-custodial models.
✓Won Core Buildathon, validating ecosystem relevance.
✓Saw strong interest from borrowers, LPs, and infra partners across wallets and integrations.
✓Landed on a clear product narrative around 'Bitcoin in, liquidity out - custody stays with you'.
Failures
○Liquidity formation, audit readiness, and institutional trust became the real unlocks — not just product mechanics.
○Early traction was limited by the lack of an audit, creating trust gating for LPs and borrowers.
○It was difficult to reach large-scale borrowers with $M+ tickets at the right time.
Where it stands
MVP built, ecosystem validated, and currently blocked at the audit plus initial capital layer needed for mainnet launch.
What it needs:
- •Security audit to unlock LP participation.
- •Early capital partners aligned with the BTC-native trust model.
- •Access to high-value borrowers across miners, funds, and family offices.
- •Tighter borrower-lender coordination flows for production readiness.
Collaboration
Open to collaborating with capital providers and LPs, BTC-focused funds and family offices, infra partners across wallets, custody, and coordination layers, and builders aligned with trust-minimized Bitcoin financing systems.
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