On‑chain data analysts report that activity on the Sui Hashi test network has remained high since its launch on July 22. In just three weeks, the total volume of deposits exceeded 1.1 million bitcoins, and the volume of withdrawals amounted to 165,000 coins. Such rates indicate early interest from retail and institutional investors in transferring native bitcoins to the Sui network without converting the asset into a synthetic token. This model has become the subject of close attention in other blockchains after hundreds of millions of dollars were stolen from storage systems as a result of repeated attacks on bridges in recent years.. The Hashi project was first presented by the Sui Foundation in March 2026 as a decentralized primitive designed to enable Bitcoin to serve as collateral in on‑chain lending markets. The project has completed the closed test network stage before the launch of the current public version, providing developers with access to development kits and integration guides ahead of the final mainnet launch. It is worth noting that for decentralized finance related to Bitcoin, 2026 turned out to be a difficult year: the total value of locked assets in Layer 2 BTCFi fell by approximately 74 percent compared to the highs of 2025 and by mid‑year amounted to about 91,000 bitcoins. Hashi’s proposal to keep Bitcoin on its own chain, rather than “wrapping” it, is a direct response to this skepticism.

Unlike traditional bridges for wrapped assets, Hashi does not withdraw Bitcoin from the Bitcoin network. Instead, users deposit native Bitcoin, Sui validators confirm the transaction, and the protocol mints hBTC — a representative token that can be used as programmable collateral for institutional lending and borrowing of stablecoins, while the underlying Bitcoin remains on its chain. Security is based on a multi-layer architecture in which deposits are protected by a “two-of-two” multisignature, requiring signatures from protocol validators using multiparty computation – a cryptographic scheme in which no single party ever holds the full private key. Fund withdrawals go through the customizable risk management system Guardian Layer, which checks large requests against pre-established threshold values before confirming them.

Currently, more than twenty‑five organizations are conducting stress testing of the system, including such giants in the storage and trading sectors as Bitgo and Cumberland, as well as Swissborg, Fluid, and Ledger. Their involvement covers trading divisions, storage infrastructure, and asset management platforms, which indicates demand for non‑custodial ways to use unused bitcoins in DeFi. The protocol’s revenue model is based on interest spreads between depositors’ income and the amount borrowers pay for loans secured by bitcoins, rather than on the inflationary issuance of tokens. If Hashi ultimately manages to capture even a small share of the $1.4 trillion Bitcoin market in the on‑chain lending sector, this will become one of the most significant examples of the interaction between Bitcoin’s balance sheet and the DeFi ecosystem.

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The material has been prepared solely for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation.