Lombard announced the acquisition of Ava Labs' BTC.b, creating the first on-chain asset infrastructure acquisition in the encryption industry.

The decentralized Bitcoin financial protocol Lombard officially announced the acquisition of BTC.b from Ava Labs, marking the first on-chain asset infrastructure acquisition in the history of the encryption industry. BTC.b is the leading Bitcoin asset in the Avalanche ecosystem, with a circulation scale of approximately 550 million USD. Through this acquisition, BTC.b will exclusively operate on Lombard's decentralized protocol architecture and become a non-yielding asset in its product system. Jacob Phillips, co-founder of Lombard, stated: “Bitcoin is the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, but most remain idle. Acquiring the infrastructure for BTC.b is an important step for Lombard to promote the easier and more efficient on-chain use of Bitcoin. The introduction of BTC.b expands Lombard's product system, complementing LBTC and providing users with permissionless, non-custodial Bitcoin assets backed by institutions, offering decentralized users a new alternative distinct from centralized wrapped assets. This collaboration combines Avalanche's liquidity foundation with Lombard's distribution capabilities, setting a new industry standard for Bitcoin.”

Through this acquisition, Lombard will form a product matrix consisting of two types of Bitcoin assets:

BTC.b — A permissionless, non-custodial Bitcoin asset that provides pure Bitcoin exposure and cross-chain composability;

LBTC — Interest-bearing Bitcoin assets that allow users to earn returns while maintaining exposure to Bitcoin.

The combination of the two provides flexible options for institutional and individual users, jointly promoting the practical application and financialization of Bitcoin in the DeFi space.

BTC.b will fully migrate to the decentralized security architecture of Lombard, adopting the same security and compliance standards as LBTC. The upgraded system will be secured by a decentralized alliance composed of 15 top independent digital asset institutions, integrating Chainlink CCIP to achieve cross-chain bridging capabilities, and utilizing Chainlink Proof of Reserve for transparent reserve verification—ensuring 1:1 verifiable collateral of native Bitcoin on-chain. Notably, the contracts, names, and existing integration relationships of BTC.b will remain unchanged, ensuring a smooth transition without impacting users or the protocol.

After the acquisition is completed, Lombard will continue to use Avalanche as the main liquidity hub for BTC.b and plans to further expand to the Ethereum mainnet, Solana, and MegaEth ecosystems after the migration is completed in the fourth quarter of 2025. At the same time, BTC.b will be integrated into Lombard's Vault product suite and SDK toolkit, which has been adopted by mainstream platforms such as Binance and Bybit.

Ava Labs Chief Business Officer John Nahas stated that BTC.b has been the most important Bitcoin asset on Avalanche since its launch, and this migration will ensure its long-term development potential and lay the foundation for cross-ecosystem expansion. Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov pointed out that BTC.b is a widely used asset in the Aave market, and Lombard's infrastructure and distribution capabilities will further expand the application range of BTC.b while maintaining the seamless experience expected by users.

This acquisition marks a key step for Lombard in building the vision of “Bitcoin Capital Markets Onchain” and represents a significant innovation in the field of crypto asset infrastructure. Lombard will continue to be committed to promoting the productivity and verifiable financialization process of Bitcoin on-chain through a secure, transparent, and permissionless architecture.