Activating Dormant Bitcoin: Why We Invested in Button

‍Bringing Bitcoin to Life on Hyperliquid

Bitcoin is one of the largest untapped assets in crypto. As Bitcoin matures into a global reserve asset held not only by retail users but also corporations and sovereign funds, activating its liquidity has become one of crypto’s most meaningful frontiers. Bitcoin bridges and L2s have traditionally focused on moving Bitcoin, leaving room for far greater utilization. Button is addressing that challenge by building a prime brokerage that lets Bitcoin holders trade, earn, and compound value without leaving the asset they believe in most.

At Blockchain Capital, we’ve long believed that Bitcoin’s next era won’t be defined by passive holding, but by activation. Button is positioned to help make that possible: a BTC-native, vertically integrated prime brokerage aligned with Hyperliquid’s trading ecosystem.

The premise is simple: unlock Bitcoin’s liquidity, safely and efficiently, for the most active and demanding users in crypto.

Button is led by Atif, Soby, and Salman, a founding team whose chemistry and track record make them uniquely suited to take on one of crypto’s hardest challenges. Atif is a veteran operator, having led go-to-market and operations at thirdweb and Stardust, and spent eight years at Facebook driving product adoption and growth. Soby previously co-founded Ex Populus and Xai, building decentralized gaming infrastructure on Arbitrum. He is a seasoned trader and crypto-native with strong relationships in the industry. Salman brings deep engineering expertise and leadership from LinkedIn, Truework, and Rainbow. A seasoned trader himself, he bridges the gap between technical execution and market intuition. Their shared discipline around culture and recruiting creates the foundation to scale responsibly while maintaining technical excellence.

A Simpler, Stronger Model for Bitcoin Liquidity

At its core, Button is designed to let users deposit BTC into a vault, mint unit of BTC (uBTC), and use that liquidity within Hyperliquid’s ecosystem for trading or yield-oriented strategies, reducing reliance on bridges, custodians, or additional layers of risk. Each vault tracks collateral deposits, issues vault tokens representing proportional ownership, and allocates liquidity to strategy modules known as Tailors.

This vertically integrated design means:

• No cross-asset slippage or lost yield opportunities.
• Real-time collateral checks and low-latency liquidations via Hyperliquid.
• One-click repay and withdrawal, making DeFi feel as simple as trading on an exchange.

The result: dormant Bitcoin becomes active, composable, and productive.

Hyperliquid Alignment

Hyperliquid’s on-chain perps exchange has shown strong performance and liquidity compared with many venues in crypto. Hyperliquid combines sub-second finality with full on-chain transparency, giving Button access to institutional-grade throughput. Button gains access to a vibrant user base and an institutional-grade trading engine while retaining the freedom to expand across protocols. This could allow builders to spin up new markets and structured products, compounding Button’s network effects.

This alignment also gives Button structural advantages:

• Permissionless market deployment via HIP-3.
• Fee-sharing with partners and integrators through Builder Codes.
• Deep composability across perps, yield, and structured products.

These features collectively point to an emerging growth approach: incentives for builders, liquidity for traders, and durable upside for the protocol.

Why Now 

Users want to put capital to work without giving up ownership. Bitcoin — the crypto asset most people hold — the formula hasn’t been cracked. Activating BTC inevitably introduces risk: any system that wraps or deploys Bitcoin must manage smart-contract, market, and integration risks with discipline. Button’s approach minimizes these assumptions, but still requires rigor around smart-contract security, Hyperliquid’s ongoing performance, and the inherent volatility of BTC-denominated strategies.

Button’s timing aligns with several broader market trends:

• Hyperliquid has been gaining traction among advanced users.
• Sustained interest in Bitcoin adoption and self-custody.
• Users increasingly want simple, composable ways to generate yield.

We invested in Button because we believe a significant cohort of users want Bitcoin-denominated accounts where they can trade and earn without compromising on safety, latency, or UX. There is room for a new ecosystem centered on Button within Hyperliquid, and we’re proud to back Atif, Soby, and Salman as they activate Bitcoin for the next generation of builders, traders, and believers. Leveraging Bitcoin should be as easy as pressing a button!

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