Bitcoin-backed stablecoins just got real — but tax rules still point some to custodians

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The long-awaited relaunch of Liquity v2 this month — after an unfortunate bug scuttled the first deployment — marked a major step forward for decentralized, censorship-resistant borrowing. However, its limited to ETH, stETH and rETH as collateral.

To expand collateral options, “friendly forks” are encouraged. Two promising new Bitcoin-backed stablecoins are launching with Liquity‘s tech: Alpen Labs’ Bitcoin Dollar (BTD) and Asymmetrys USDaf.

Built around Liquity‘s battle-tested, governance-free model, v2 brings improved capital efficiency and user-set interest rates in addition to new collateral types. Importantly, it extends the original protocol’s strict censorship minimization ethos to new blockchains, including Ethereum and Bitcoin layer-2s, through licensing agreements.

Bitcoin lending has historically been dominated by custodial platforms like BlockFi, Celsius and Ledn, where users surrendered their BTC in exchange for dollar liquidity — often at the cost of transparency, flexibility or sometimes, well, solvency. The latest option, presented in Las Vegas at Bitcoin2025, is from Bitcoin payments company Strike, which offers Bitcoin-backed loans at interest rates between 9-13% — typical for custodial lenders.

Compared to centralized services, the DeFi alternatives offer much better terms.

Asymmetrys offering, which is live on Ethereum mainnet, accepts tBTC, wBTC and cbBTC at max LTVs above 80%, with borrowing rates currently between 4.2% and 7.1% APR.

Alpens BTD, while not yet live on mainnet, aims to do the same using native BTC collateral (eventually via BitVM bridges) in a zero-governance zk rollup, according to CEO Simanta Gautam.

“Were building a Bitcoin-native, censorship-resistant stablecoin — not another wrapped token or federated bridge,” Gautam told Blockworks.

The BTD will be immutable from day one, and will launch with no governance token or admin keys — much like Liquity itself. That‘s unusual among Liquity v2 forks, which typically promise tokens to Liquity’s own BOLD stablecoin liquidity and stability providers.

Even non-Liquity options like Mezo, which launched mainnet this week, offer Bitcoin-backed loans at 1% fixed interest — though users give up custody and flexibility to take advantage. The MUSD stablecoin is only useful via integrated partners in the Mezo Market.

The clear advantages of the decentralized model are capital efficiency, lower interest rates and potentially the elimination of custodial risk. For advanced users looking to allocate new capital to bitcoin, theres little reason to use a custodial lender.

But theres one major caveat: tax treatment.

In most jurisdictions, converting native BTC into a non-native version (like LBTC or tBTC) is treated as a taxable disposal. So while borrowing itself is not taxable, the act of moving BTC into a DeFi protocol may trigger a capital gains event. Thats where custodial lenders like Strike and Xapo still hold an edge — by allowing BTC to remain untouched while serving as collateral, they preserve favorable tax treatment for long-term holders.

There‘s a third category emerging that may offer a middle ground: Babylon’s native Bitcoin staking, which locks BTC for yield but doesn‘t create a derivative or require asset exchange. It’s still early, but that model could offer both yield and tax efficiency — without giving up self-custody. On the other hand, its not a stablecoin you can spend elsewhere, and the BTC income may be subject to tax like any other.