Recently on Binance Alpha and CreatorPad, I discovered an interesting phenomenon: whenever BANK appears in the list, the discussions in the comment section are no longer just about whether the airdrop is worth it, but people are starting to talk about USD1+, re-staking BTC, and the so-called Financial Abstraction Layer—pointing to the same protocol: Lorenzo. The project team just announced an additional 1 million USD equivalent of BANK for the Alpha airdrop prize pool, along with a trading competition of nearly 5.893 million BANK over the past two weeks, and extra task incentives. For an asset management protocol that just completed its listing on Binance, this is no longer simply about 'new coins attracting new users', but more like giving retail investors a ticket to access institutional-level yield infrastructure.
If we put aside the noise of these activities and take a quiet look at the underlying design of Lorenzo, it resembles a 'financial operating system' rather than a single product. In the latest project interpretations by Binance Academy and CoinMarketCap, Lorenzo is defined as an 'institutional-level on-chain asset management platform': at its core is a financial abstraction layer (FAL) that encapsulates various yield strategies into individual Vaults, which are then combined into an On-Chain Traded Fund (OTF). What is presented to users is a tradable, combinable, and callable 'yield token' by other protocols. OFUYC's research even directly likens each Vault to a 'programmable financial primitive': whether it's BTC staking, RWA bond interest, or stablecoin arbitrage strategies, they can all be uniformly dispatched to this FAL for scheduling, pricing, and settlement.
For this stablecoin, the latest main character is USD1+ OTF. A few months ago, it was just an 'experimental monetary fund' on the BNB Chain testnet, but now it has officially launched as a product: it integrates RWA (such as tokenized US Treasury bonds), CeFi quantitative strategies, and DeFi strategies into a combined fund, with all returns settled in USD1 issued by World Liberty Financial. What users receive is a pair of tokens: USD1+ and sUSD1+. The former leans towards heavy bases while the latter is a non-heavy base share certificate more suitable for accessing DeFi—quantities remain unchanged, net value slowly increases, and withdrawals are completed through a 7–14 day rolling window to balance asset liquidity and strategy execution periods. For those accustomed to traditional public offerings, this is essentially an 'on-chain version of a money market fund', where subscriptions, redemptions, and pricing are all executed by contracts.
There is a deeper binding behind this: WLFI does not simply 'connect USD1 to Lorenzo', but directly uses cash to bind itself and BANK together. News disclosed in July revealed that World Liberty Financial purchased 636,683 BANK on the secondary market, approximately $40,000, to support Lorenzo's long-term development; simultaneously, WLFI, in collaboration with BNB Chain, PancakeSwap, and BUILDon, launched a $1 million USD1 incentive plan, with Lorenzo winning the championship in the existing project track of BSC thanks to the expansion of USD1 applications. In other words, the stablecoin issuer is voting with its own balance sheet, betting that USD1+ and this OTF can become the 'yield hub' of the USD1 ecosystem, while BANK serves as the 'equity certificate' of this hub.
Azu, this time I deliberately changed my approach to experience USD1+: I no longer opened a 'financial dApp' but treated it as a 'back-end plugin' in my wallet. I prepared a small amount of USDT/USDC on the BNB Chain, first exchanging it for USD1 according to the WLFI official route, and then selected the USD1+ strategy in Lorenzo's OTF interface. After confirming a transaction, I had an additional sUSD1+ in my wallet. The subsequent experience was quite 'boring': there were no flashing APY numbers, nor any 'yield credited' prompts; it was just that when I reopened the interface and refreshed the net value after a few days, I noticed that string of numbers quietly growing. For old DeFi players accustomed to farm-style high APY, this rhythm felt somewhat unadaptable, but if you place it within the framework of 'idle money management', it is closer to a real-world monetary fund: subscriptions, holdings, and redemptions are standardized, the only difference is that it runs on the BNB chain, with the strategy combination adding a layer of DeFi and quantitative flavor.
The BTC line has recently been clarified by a batch of new articles. Platforms like Bybit, CoinEx, and Bitget have emphasized in their interpretations this year that Lorenzo's goal is not to create a simple LST, but to build a complete 'BTC liquidity and yield layer': upstream, through Babylon's Bitcoin re-staking protocol, providing native BTC securely to various PoS chains and L2; in the middle, Lorenzo uses BLSP and its own Appchain to split these positions into LPT (principal notes) and YAT (yield accumulation notes); downstream, they are repackaged into stBTC and enzoBTC, allowing users to maintain 1:1 redemption ability while also participating in lending, trading, and other strategies in DeFi. For someone like me who is a long-term BTC holder, this effectively transforms 'BTC lying in a cold wallet' into a pluggable yield module, retaining the belief in native Bitcoin assets, but no longer just as a pure store of value.
More importantly, Lorenzo does not lock these BTC derivative assets on a single chain or application, but treats them as 'public components' for external output. The official has repeatedly stated that stBTC and related assets will flow across chains through cross-chain infrastructures like Wormhole, and connect to lending protocols like Enzo Finance, allowing stBTC itself to be collateralized, lent, and reconfigured; Babylon's own ecological updates also view Lorenzo as a representative project that 'packages BTC staking rewards for the DeFi world'. This means that when a wallet, a lending platform, or even an RWA project wants BTC yield assets, they do not need to reinvent the wheel; they can directly interface with the already standardized stBTC, LPT, or YAT.
Returning to BANK itself, the latest developments clarify its role even more. Binance Academy and several research articles have pointed out that BANK's total supply is 2.1 billion, with an unlocking period of 60 months, and the current circulation ratio is about one-quarter. The unlocking curve for the team and early investors has been deliberately extended, with more tokens reserved for protocol incentives and ecological expansion; within the protocol, BANK is converted to veBANK through a ve model, allowing holders to influence which strategies, which OTFs, and which vaults gain more resources and repurchase shares based on their weighted governance rights from locking time. Combined with WLFI's off-market purchases, a $1 million airdrop pool on Alpha, and trading competitions from various exchanges, BANK has been positioned as 'equity in the yield infrastructure' rather than just a 'mining reward token'.
Of course, all of this sounds beautiful, but as Azu, I will not overlook the underlying combination risks. Lorenzo's model is essentially a hybrid of CeDeFi + RWA + multi-chain DeFi: on one hand, you must trust contract security and cross-chain bridge mechanisms, on the other hand, you also have to accept the credit risks of custodians, CeFi counterparties, and RWA issuers; the high yield of USD1+ comes from real-world interest rates, quantitative strategies, and on-chain fees, naturally accompanied by net value fluctuations and redemption window constraints, and is not a flexible treasure that can be 'deposited at the click of a button and withdrawn at any time'; the BTC line relies on Babylon and custodial solutions, and the complexity of the security model far exceeds that of single-chain staking; as for BANK, the built-in Seed Tag and years of unlocking settings already remind everyone: this is a high-volatility asset, reflecting expectations for the entire yield infrastructure rather than the short-term activities themselves.
So, if you, like me, are noticing Lorenzo seriously for the first time between tasks, airdrops, and coin news, I would suggest a relatively simple action sequence. Step one: use a small amount of stablecoins that you are completely indifferent to, and personally go through the subscription and redemption process of USD1 → USD1+ → sUSD1+ on the BNB chain, feel the net value changes and redemption rhythm, and clarify whether this 'on-chain monetary fund' is suitable for your idle money management tool. Step two: if you already have a portion of long-term BTC positions, after fully understanding the Babylon and stBTC mechanisms, allocate a very small position to try, upgrading BTC from 'pure storage' to a 'composite asset that provides security and participates in DeFi'. Step three: when you feel that you are not just wanting to 'use the product', but want a bit of say in strategy selection and incentive distribution, consider researching BANK and veBANK, treating it as a 'equity certificate' for participating in the long-term growth of this infrastructure rather than a short-term speculative chip. All position decisions should be based on what you can understand and feel comfortable with; this article is just my Azu's整理 based on public information and personal experience, and does not constitute any investment advice.
