Bitcoin Liquid Staking Explodes: Lombard’s BARD Token and Foundation Launch Ignites Market Frenzy

Bitcoin's staking revolution just went mainstream—and traditional finance isn't ready.

Lombard's groundbreaking BARD token launch shatters Bitcoin's liquidity paradox, turning dormant BTC into yield-generating assets without sacrificing ownership.

The Foundation's backing signals institutional confidence in Bitcoin's DeFi future, creating a seismic shift in how the world's largest cryptocurrency gets utilized.

Watch traditional banks scramble to explain why their 0.01% savings accounts still exist while Bitcoin holders earn real yield—the irony isn't lost on anyone paying attention.

A market potentially worth billions

By mobilizing BTC's dormant liquidity, Lombard and other liquid staking projects aim to provide the infrastructure for Bitcoin DeFi, channeling the asset’s vast market cap into onchain capital markets.

This effort mirrors Ethereum’s own transformation through liquid staking derivatives, but with the potential to unlock a deeper pool of value given bitcoin’s scale.

To contextualize the difference in scale, Ethereum’s liquid staking market, led by Lido’s stETH, boasts a market cap of approximately $38 billion. In contrast, the entire bitcoin LST sector is still nascent, with total market capitalization around $2.5 billion. Lombard’s LBTC alone accounts for roughly $1.4 billion of that, or around 40% of the bitcoin LST market.

Lombard’s BARD

Building on that foundation, Lombard this week announced the creation of the Liquid Bitcoin Foundation and its native $BARD token, alongside a $6.75 million community sale.

The Foundation will act as an independent steward of the protocol, funding research, grants, and education, while establishing governance frameworks to preserve neutrality. $BARD will serve as the utility and governance token of the ecosystem, giving holders the ability to stake to secure Lombard’s Core infrastructure, vote on proposals, and gain access to new products.

Jacob Phillips, Lombard’s co-founder, described the community sale as “an invitation to over 260,000 LBTC holders and others in the Bitcoin ecosystem to help shape the future of bitcoin onchain.” Erick Zhang, founder of Buidlpad who will host the sale, added that Lombard is “a pioneer unlocking bitcoin’s full potential as digital Gold and a foundation for next-gen capital markets.”