How Atlas Unlocks BTC Yield on the EVM
Most Bitcoin is locked away. While this design is brilliant for security, it’s a dead end for growth. DeFi offers powerful financial tools, but getting your BTC there has always meant a risky trade-off: entrusting it to centralized custodians or relying on complex bridges and sacrificing the very decentralization that makes Bitcoin valuable.
Put Your Bitcoin to Work, Securely
Atlas introduces a fundamentally new way to move Bitcoin. Instead of bridging or wrapping your BTC, you lock native BTC on the Bitcoin network. Atlas Protocol, powered by NEAR's Chain Signatures network, then co-signs a transaction to mint atBTC 1:1 on your chosen EVM chain.
This process uses Multi-Party Computation (MPC), meaning your keys are never reconstructed in one place, never consolidated, and never held by a single custodian. It’s decentralized from start to finish.
Redemption is just as secure. Burn atBTC on Ethereum, Base, or Arbitrum, and the exact same amount of native BTC releases back to your Bitcoin wallet. Every mint and burn is a transparent, on-chain event, making atBTC institutional-grade collateral that's fully auditable.
Why the EVM?
We started with the EVM for one reason: it's where the action is. The deepest liquidity, the most innovative protocols, and the largest user bases are on Ethereum and its leading L2s like Arbitrum and Base, which offer speed, low fees, and a world-class user experience.
What does this unlock day one?
Earn Passive Yield: Supply atBTC to money markets like Aave or Morpho to earn a lending rate, or borrow stablecoins against it without selling your BTC.
Power Your Trades: Use atBTC as margin on decentralized perpetual exchanges. Keep your collateral denominated in BTC while you go long or short on other assets.
Become a Liquidity Provider (LP): Pair atBTC with assets like ETH or USDC in an Automated Market Maker (AMM) to earn trading fees and other protocol incentives. And that’s just the beginning. Use atBTC in options vaults to earn premiums, mint stablecoins from Collateralized Debt Positions (CDPs), or access structured products for predictable returns.
Security is the point, not the afterthought.
atBTC was designed from the ground up to avoid the critical security flaws of existing Bitcoin bridges. There is no central custodian like WBTC with the power to freeze your assets, nor is there a small multi-sig or drainable smart contract that concentrates risk. By distributing custody across NEAR’s independent network nodes, atBTC ensures your native Bitcoin stays decentralized and secured where it belongs: on L1.
Getting Started
DeFi use cases for atBTC
Use case
What you do with atBTC
Why it helps
Money market supply
Lend atBTC, borrow USDC
Earn APR and keep BTC exposure
Perps collateral
Post atBTC as margin
Trade/hedge while BTC-denominated
AMM LP
atBTC/ETH or atBTC/USDC
Fees + incentives (manage IL)
Options vault
Covered calls/puts
Add premia on top of base yield
CDP mint
Lock atBTC, mint a stable
Liquidity without selling BTC
Conclusion
Atlas makes BTC a first-class citizen on any EVM chain, including Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum. Mint atBTC, pick your network, and let your sats work securely and on your terms.
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