🚨 Ledger launches “BTC Yield” so Bitcoin holders can finally earn yield without leaving self-custody
🧊 I’m seeing Ledger push the “productive Bitcoin” narrative forward by launching a new feature called BTC Yield inside the Ledger Wallet app.
🛡️ The big deal is that I can earn yield on BTC without giving up my keys and without sending funds to a centralized exchange, since it stays inside the Ledger self-custody environment.
📲 The yield option is accessed through the Figment dApp inside the Discover section, where I can deposit BTC and receive LBTC by Lombard (1:1 backed with Bitcoin).
🔁 The flow is simple: I deposit BTC → I receive LBTC → and over time LBTC increases in BTC terms, meaning my redeemable BTC value grows as rewards accumulate.
⚙️ The yield itself comes from the Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol, where Bitcoin is used as economic security to support other networks without the traditional “unlocking” model people expect from staking.
🏗️ Ledger is basically the distribution layer here, Figment runs the infrastructure side, and Lombard provides the yield-bearing BTC asset.
⚠️ But it’s not risk-free, since there’s no guaranteed APY, plus exposure to smart contract risk and Babylon design risks like slashing mechanics.
🧠 My takeaway: this is one of the biggest mainstream experiments yet for BTC yield, and if it works, it could bring DeFi-style yield to long-term Bitcoin holders without killing the self-custody philosophy.
