Hermetica Launches Bitcoin Earn Vault hBTC on Stacks, Earning From Strategy's $STRC and Dual Staking

New York, New York, April 21st, 2026, Chainwire

Built on Stacks — the leading Bitcoin layer for on-chain yield — hBTC gives institutional allocators BTC-denominated returns from blue-chip strategies including Strategy's $STRC, with full transparency and self-custody

Hermetica today launched hBTC, a self-custodial Bitcoin yield vault built on Stacks, earning yield from Strategy's $STRC, Stacks’ Dual Staking, and other Bitcoin-native yield sources. The launch comes after Michael Saylor reposted Hermetica's yield announcement for USDh, underscoring the growing institutional appetite for productive Bitcoin capital. With 25 BTC already committed in its initial cohort — currently earning BTC-denominated yield on a daily basis through Strategy-linked exposure and Stacks Dual Staking — hBTC is now opening allocation to a broader set of institutional participants.

Bitcoin has become a cornerstone institutional asset, but remains largely unproductive: an estimated ~0.3% of BTC supply is currently earning yield, compared to 30% for ETH. The market has cycled through two failed models — custody-only products with limited income, and opaque yield products that pursued returns through leverage and counterparty risk. Neither solved the core problem of sustainable, transparent BTC income for institutions.

hBTC is the missing middle built on Stacks, a leading platform for Bitcoin-native finance, with over 4,000 BTC distributed to participants. hBTC sources returns from strategies with exposure to instruments such as Strategy’s $STRC (via Saturn’s sUSDat), alongside Stacks Dual Staking and other yield products. All profits are converted back to BTC daily, keeping allocators fully denominated in Bitcoin. Additional yield sources, including real-world asset (RWA) strategies, are expected to be added over time within the same risk-managed framework.

Stacks is the platform for Bitcoin-native finance that makes hBTC possible, operating for five years and distributing native Bitcoin yield through a consensus mechanism tied directly to Bitcoin. hBTC broadens the amount of financial use cases, bringing Bitcoin capital on at scale. hBTC’s institutional-grade user experience caters to an exponentially increasing Bitcoin capital held by capital investment firms, public Bitcoin treasuries, and other institutions.

“Bitcoin is institutional, but BTC income still has a missing-middle problem. Until now, the choice has been between custody-only exposure and yield strategies that lack transparency. hBTC bridges that gap with BTC yield from on-chain strategies, paired with reporting and risk controls institutions can actually underwrite.” — Jakob Schillinger, Founder & CEO, Hermetica

“hBTC gets BTC yield right. It’s great to see Zest Protocol v2 powering the underlying strategy on Stacks and delivering full composability. I applaud Hermetica’s commitment to transparent risk controls and on-chain execution.” — Tycho Onnasch, CEO, Zest Protocol

About Stacks

Stacks is the leading Bitcoin layer by BTC deployed, providing infrastructure for a growing range of Bitcoin-native applications. The network enables Bitcoin-native financial applications, from lending and borrowing to autonomous AI agents, all settled with Bitcoin finality. Users can learn more at stacks.co .

About Hermetica

Hermetica is the creator of hBTC, self-custodial Bitcoin yield, and USDh, the yield-bearing stablecoin. Built on Stacks, the team brings decades of experience from leading crypto companies, including Kraken and Two Prime, to help build the future of Bitcoin finance. Users can learn more at hermetica.fi .

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