Sui is preparing to launch Hashi, an institutional protocol that lets bitcoin holders use BTC as collateral for lending without moving the asset off the Bitcoin network. According to CoinDesk, the Hashi mainnet is scheduled to roll out in phases later this month.
The network is debuting with $500 million in capital commitments from a coalition of more than 20 industry partners. CoinDesk said those commitments are not the same as immediate deposits, but the pre-pledged capital is meant to give the market deep liquidity when the system opens instead of forcing it to start from scratch.
Hashi is aimed at a large pool of idle bitcoin. Sui estimates that roughly $1 trillion worth of BTC is currently sitting dormant. The report said institutional and corporate balance-sheet holders have so far lacked a compliant and transparent framework for deploying native bitcoin safely into decentralized finance.
Targeting institutional demand for bitcoin-backed credit
In an official announcement, Mysten Labs Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer Adeniyi Abiodun said, 「Hashi is launching with serious capital and a coalition of industry leaders because institutions want to put Bitcoin to work without giving up the protections they require.」 Mysten Labs is the original creator of Sui.
The launch comes as bitcoin-backed finance is expanding beyond speculative crypto trading. CoinDesk reported that bitcoin-collateralized loans are now being used for real-world expenses including university tuition, real estate acquisitions, and corporate working capital.
Nathan McCauley, CEO and co-founder of Anchorage Digital, said, 「Public companies and institutions hold enormous amounts of Bitcoin, but their ability to use that capital has been constrained by the technology available to them.」 Anchorage Digital is a day-one launch partner and also plans to supply stablecoin liquidity to the network.
McCauley added, 「Connecting our institutional clients with Hashi represents a complete paradigm shift.」
How Hashi works
Hashi is designed to avoid the usual cross-chain path. Instead of bridging BTC to another blockchain, users lock their bitcoin in a vault address directly on the Bitcoin blockchain.
That address is protected by a 2-of-2 multisig arrangement, which requires cryptographic sign-off from both of Hashi’s validators. The protocol also includes a separate guardian layer that is designed to monitor collateral movements and slow suspicious transfers.
While the underlying bitcoin remains locked on Bitcoin, Hashi mints hBTC on Sui. CoinDesk described hBTC as a digital voucher token backed directly by the deposited BTC. Applications on Sui can then use those hBTC vouchers across lending, borrowing, credit markets, and real-world asset trading.
When a user wants to exit, the hBTC on Sui is permanently burned. That action triggers the multisig process to unlock and release the original bitcoin back to the user on the Bitcoin network.
Security reviews before launch
To meet institutional compliance and security requirements, Hashi has gone through external review. Security firm Certora formally verified the protocol’s smart contracts, while CommonPrefix reviewed the cryptography behind its multi-party computation, or MPC, protocol.
CoinDesk said the mainnet will launch in phases and is targeting a large base of institutional bitcoin that has remained inactive. With committed capital, custody-style controls, and external security checks in place, Hashi is being positioned as a way to bring that dormant BTC into lending and credit markets without moving it off Bitcoin.