Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, July 22nd, 2026, Chainwire
New builders and 25+ partners can now start testing the much-anticipated Bitcoin infrastructure ahead of mainnet. It is powered by Sui’s high-performance network and Hashi’s new security mechanism, the Guardian Layer.
Sui, where money moves as freely as messages, today announced that Hashi testnet has officially launched. Builders, institutions, and infrastructure providers can now build and connect Bitcoin-backed financial apps ahead of mainnet.
Why Bitcoin Needs More Utility
Bitcoin has proven itself as the world’s premier digital store of value. It has reached over a $1 trillion market cap on that use case alone. Its next chapter will be defined by utility. Readers can follow the latest Bitcoin price for market context.
With Hashi testnet now live on Sui, Bitcoin reaches an important milestone in its needed evolution. Developers, custodians, financial institutions, and ecosystem partners get their first chance to build, connect, and stress-test Bitcoin-backed financial apps before mainnet.
Alongside today’s launch, Hashi introduces the Guardian Layer. It is a new security design with many layers. It helps big firms manage Bitcoin collateral safely. It also keeps onchain finance open and programmable.
The Guardian Layer gives Bitcoin the defense it needs to finally go on offense. It helps unlock lending, credit, ways to earn yield, and a new wave of financial products for big firms on Sui.
Unlocking Dormant Bitcoin
Big firms have bought in faster through spot ETFs, company treasury plans, and clearer rules. Even so, more than a trillion dollars of Bitcoin still sits largely unused.
The tools to safely put native BTC into open, programmable credit markets have simply not existed.
Just as important, institutions have not been sure that moving native BTC into onchain markets could be done without needless tax bills. Fenwick, one of the top law firms in digital assets, concluded that Hashi’s deposit and redemption steps should not count as taxable events under U.S. tax law.
Hashi testnet is the start of the buildout that will power Bitcoin lending, borrowing, and new credit for big firms on Sui.
Builders range from custody providers and wallet infrastructure to lending protocols and capital markets players. They can now start checking integrations, testing workflows, and getting apps ready for production before Hashi reaches mainnet.
Developer SDK documentation, an integration guide, and technical resources are available today on sui.io/hashi to help builders begin immediately.
“Every major asset class eventually develops deep credit, lending, and liquidity markets,” said Adeniyi Abiodun, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Mysten Labs, the original contributor to Sui. “Bitcoin is no different. Hashi is giving developers the infrastructure to build those markets onchain with the security, transparency, and programmability institutions have been waiting for.”
Adding Defense: Hashi’s Guardian Layer
A key part of the protocol, shown for the first time today, is the Guardian Layer. It is an extra layer of protection that helps secure collateral movement and large transactions.
The Guardian Layer adds safeguards that can be set to slow or stop possible attacks before collateral leaves the system. This helps big firms manage risk while keeping onchain markets open to view.
All BTC collateral (or UTXOs) is secured with a 2-of-2 multisig. It needs an MPC signature from the Hashi validators as well as a signature from the guardian. This adds one more layer of protection against malicious activity.
Big firms need these protections before they take part. They add to the wider design shared earlier this year, including:
- Automated collateral management
- Loan terms that can be verified
- Full onchain visibility into collateral health
A Growing Group of Big-Firm Partners
As Hashi enters testnet, the ecosystem keeps growing with strategic partners across DeFi, banking infrastructure, and capital markets.
Wave Digital Assets is deepening its commitment to Hashi after first announcing support during devnet. As an institutional manager, Wave has committed to three years of best efforts to put first the tokenization of Bitcoin-yield-bearing bond products on the Sui protocol using Hashi. This backs its belief that big firms are ready to use programmable Bitcoin bond markets.
Hashi’s World-Class Launch Partners
These steps strengthen an ecosystem that already includes many of crypto’s leading custodians, liquidity providers, wallet providers, DeFi protocols, insurance providers, and infrastructure companies.
When devnet was announced earlier this year, over 20 day-one launch partners had already committed to building and deploying capital on Hashi. They include several of crypto’s heavyweights. For background on Bitcoin scaling, see our explainer on Bitcoin layer 2 networks.
Custody & Wallet Access
- BitGo: Custody for big-firm clients.
- Blockdaemon, Cobo, Fordefi (by Paxos): Wallet and core tech providers for big firms.
- Cubist: Tools to move and hold collateral across chains.
- Ledger: Self-custody for retail users and big firms.
- SwissBorg: Asset management and a wallet app in Europe for very wealthy (UHNW) users, retail users, and big firms.
Lending, Trading & Liquidity Providers
- Bullish: A digital asset platform for big firms that adds liquidity.
- Cumberland: A leading crypto market maker and liquidity provider for big firms.
- Erebor: A bank with an OCC charter that adds liquidity.
- FalconX: A prime broker for big firms that adds liquidity.
DeFi & Lending Applications
- AlphaLend, Bluefin, Current, Scallop, Suilend: DeFi protocols built on Sui. They let retail users lend and borrow from day one.
- Fluid: Links lending, borrowing, liquidity and more into one system that makes good use of money.
- Navi: One of Sui’s largest and oldest DeFi protocols, set to offer Hashi lending.
Vaults & Managing Assets
- Concrete by Blueprint Finance: A vault platform for earning yield.
- Inveniam Capital: Ways to earn yield from Real-World Assets (RWA).
- Wave Digital Assets LLC: An SEC-registered investment adviser. It works with industry partners to help issue bonds backed by Bitcoin.
Index Data, Insurance & Security Audits
- CF Benchmarks: A crypto index firm that shares price data through oracles.
- Soter Insure: Insurance for big firms, paid in Bitcoin.
- Asymptotic, Certora, OtterSec: Auditors who check smart contract security and prove code is correct.
What Comes Next
Starting today, developers can build. Institutions can integrate. Infrastructure providers can deploy. Together, they can help shape the financial system Bitcoin has been waiting for. It is a system where the world’s largest digital asset becomes one of the world’s most productive forms of collateral.
Technical documentation and testnet access configurations are hosted at source.
About Sui
Sui, where money moves as freely as messages, is a next-generation Layer 1 blockchain built for scalable finance and global payments.
It was founded by the core team behind Meta’s stablecoin project. It uses an object-centric model. This makes assets, permissions, and user data programmable and ownable.
Sui’s building blocks give builders everything they need to create fast payment and financial apps, including instant agentic payments. Users can learn more at sui.io.
Contact: media@sui.io
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