Optimex: Revolutionizing Bitcoin Finance
Bitcoin makes up nearly 60% of the crypto market’s value, yet less than 0.5% participates in decentralized finance (DeFi). Trillions of dollars remain idle, as holders lack efficient ways to unlock liquidity without giving up custody or triggering taxes. Existing solutions fall short: wrapped tokens like WBTC depend on centralized custodians, introducing de-peg and counterparty risks, while custodial loans from firms such as Coinbase or Two Prime charge high rates (often above 8%) and require long settlements. Worse, converting BTC to wrapped tokens can be deemed a taxable disposal. These limitations create a trust-dependent, inefficient credit market around bitcoin—the world’s most valuable digital asset—leaving vast capital untapped.
Optimex was built to change that. Our mission is to make bitcoin a productive asset — one that can generate liquidity and yield without compromising security or ownership. Like prime real estate that can be both held for appreciation and borrowed against for liquidity, bitcoin should serve both functions in the financial system.
At its core, Optimex is a self-custodial platform for offering native bitcoin-backed loans and yield that lets users borrow stablecoins directly against native BTC. Borrowers lock their BTC in a multisig vault on the Bitcoin chain, while smart contracts on Ethereum (and soon other EVM networks) coordinate the loan, repayment, and liquidation process. A specialized network called the Optimex Settlement Committee verifies events across chains. This is not a blockchain or a bridge — it’s a threshold-signing network that enables trust-minimized coordination without any single entity ever controlling user funds. It is not a threshold custody model either — even if the committee’s threshold requirement were compromised, it still could not move user BTC arbitrarily, since all transactions are pre-signed and strictly scoped by the borrower.
The initial product, Optimex Borrow, enables BTC holders to access stablecoin liquidity at materially lower rates (targeting 5–6%) compared to custodial loans. Future product — Optimex Earn — will extend this framework to yield opportunities and institutional treasury management. Integration with lending markets like Morpho and Euler, and partnerships with institutional liquidity providers, allow Optimex to offer both floating-rate and fixed-term credit options.
We’re building for scale from the start. Our execution layer uses RFQ-based trading to minimize slippage and MEV on large BTC transactions, and our architecture is designed for institutional-grade custody, compliance, and auditability. Over time, Optimex will integrate directly with Fireblocks and other institutional tools, supporting liquidity pools in the hundreds of millions.
The Optimex token, OPMX, is the backbone of this system. It secures cross-chain settlement through staking and slashing, rewards early liquidity providers, and shares in protocol fees via buybacks or staking rewards — directly linking token value to real network usage and revenue. Controlled emissions and transparent governance ensure sustainability rather than speculation.
Our long-term vision is to establish Optimex as Bitcoin’s credit and liquidity layer — a foundation upon which other financial products can be built. Beyond lending, native BTC can be used as collateral for funding-rate trading on platforms like Pendle Boros, or as margin for perps on Hyperliquid and Aster. We’ve already begun these integrations.
By unlocking native Bitcoin liquidity without compromise, Optimex expands Morpho’s mission of accessible liquidity and yield—extending it from Ethereum to Bitcoin. Morpho made lending markets more capital-efficient by routing liquidity directly between borrowers and lenders; Optimex brings that same principle to native BTC, enabling it to flow into DeFi without wrapping or custodial risk. In doing so, Optimex transforms Bitcoin from a static store of value into productive, yield-generating capital powering the next phase of on-chain finance.
Ready to explore the future Bitcoin finance? Check out our apps, follow us on X, or send us an email.