Pour a cup of your favorite drink and listen to Grandpa tell a story. To be honest, in the past, I viewed Lorenzo more as a 'Bitcoin yield protocol + stablecoin investment tool.' But over the past couple of days, I went through the materials again and found that its story has quietly upgraded: Binance Academy has just updated its introduction article to the latest version, defining Lorenzo as 'an asset management layer that moves traditional financial strategies onto the chain through OTF'; several long articles on Binance Square have specifically highlighted veBANK and discussed how it rewrites DeFi incentives; research papers from exchanges and CMC updates are talking about new keywords like AI, B2B settlements, and RWA collateral. Putting this combination together, you will find that Lorenzo is no longer satisfied with 'helping you earn a little more interest,' but is seriously treating each wallet as a small family office that can be programmed.
First, let’s talk about the latest AI dimension added. Phemex's latest report directly describes Lorenzo as CeDeFAI: one side is traditional on-chain asset management, and the other side connects AI, specifically to enhance the quantitative strategy mix within OTF. The article states very clearly: Lorenzo is not just about creating a 'yield-generating token', but using AI to optimize strategy selection, position adjustment, and risk control; meanwhile, through collaboration with TaggerAI, it allows enterprises using USD1 to pay for AI data services to easily collateralize funds into USD1+ OTF, using this 'data trading + stable yield' combination to thicken corporate cash flow. For someone like me, who already has to pay various SaaS subscriptions for a content studio, this idea of tying 'expenditure' and 'yield' into one product is clearly closer to the real-world way of spending money than just chasing airdrops.
Following this line of thought, looking at USD1+ OTF, it is no longer just a 'high APR investment platform' so simply. The official Medium and Lorenzo's official website now describe USD1+ OTF as a 'flagship stablecoin yield product': the underlying settlement uses WLFI's USD1 uniformly, with three layers of yield sources on top—RWA yields, interest from traditional assets like US Treasury bonds, hedging yields from CeFi quantitative strategies, and borrowing and LP profits from on-chain DeFi, ultimately all returning to USD1 and then distributed to users via USD1+ / sUSD1+. In other words, if you have a stablecoin that was originally sitting on an exchange and only used as payment backup, you can now connect it to USD1+ with one click and turn it into a 'cash management position supported by a clear strategy mix'.
On the asset side, there’s a recent easy-to-overlook but very crucial update: Lorenzo has integrated OpenEden's USDO into the USD1+ OTF as one of the collateral assets. USDO itself is a compliant RWA stablecoin centered around US Treasury bonds, which means that the basket of assets behind the USD1+ OTF now includes a layer of regulated, clearer bond exposure in addition to the original reserves corresponding to USD1. Combined with the WLFI official description of USD1—custodied by BitGo, with reserves consisting of short-term US Treasury bonds, USD deposits, etc., and with a dedicated risk disclosure document—you'll find that Lorenzo is actually managing assets on top of a narrative built around 'Trump family-led WLFI + traditional institutional funds + US Treasury RWA'. This line is both an opportunity and a risk: the upper limit of returns comes from macro interest rates and strategic capabilities, while the lower limit is closely tied to US politics, regulations, and WLFI’s own governance, which is something every participant must independently digest.
If we only see Lorenzo as a 'stablecoin investment machine', we are underestimating it. The latest article from Binance Academy has already broken it down into a multi-layer asset management stack: at the base are various vaults that allocate funds according to strategies for market making, volatility, trends, structured yields, and different combinations; the middle Financial Abstraction Layer is responsible for unified routing and risk control; and above that, it is packaged into OTF, giving you a freely tradable token. On the product level, stBTC turns your BTC staked on protocols like Babylon into a tradable LST, enzoBTC provides 1:1 pegged BTC wrapped assets, while BNB+ tokenizes institutional-level BNB strategies, allowing you to directly hold NAV-appreciating 'on-chain BNB fund shares'. For me, this means that Lorenzo is no longer just a place to 'help stablecoins find yield', but a complete set of strategies for managing 'BTC, BNB, USD' in one stop.
At the governance and incentive level, several recent long articles from Binance Square have taken veBANK out as a standalone case study, with the title 'Why the veBANK Model Solves the Biggest Incentive Problem in DeFi'. The core logic is simple: holding BANK outright doesn't offer much, as the real power and yield lie in locked veBANK. The longer you lock it, the more veBANK you get, and veBANK is non-transferable and non-tradable; you can only use it to vote, decide the funding allocation for OTF strategies, receive protocol income dividends, and even give yourself a 'boost' for the liquidity and strategy positions you participate in. This design automatically filters out those who only want to short-term trade coins and pulls in those willing to spend time costs for long-term stable strategies into the decision-making layer. Coupled with WLFI’s own out-of-pocket purchase of BANK and the $1 million incentive plan launched with BNB Chain / PancakeSwap / BUILDon, you'll find that BANK is more like a comprehensive carrier of 'company equity + governance rights', rather than just a market coin.
New things on the roadmap layer are also worth taking a serious look at. In CMC's latest update, Lorenzo's upcoming focus is directly written as three points: working with partners like TaggerAI to embed USD1+ OTF into B2B settlement scenarios; expanding the USD1+ yield strategy to multi-chains like Solana and Ethereum; and allowing more regulated RWA stablecoins, such as USDO-like assets, to become collateral components of OTF. If these three things can really take off, the impact on us on-chain users will likely be: first, enterprises bringing cash flow into USD1+ means a more stable large amount of funds laying the foundation; second, multi-chain expansion will turn OTF into 'cross-chain assets', no longer just circling in the small pool of BNB chain; third, the increase in the proportion of compliant RWAs will make the entire portfolio more like a regulated bond fund, rather than purely relying on quantitative and DeFi to chase high volatility positions for APY.
Returning to the perspective of 'I am Azu', I now interpret Lorenzo in a more everyday way. Imagine you are a small studio doing outsourcing and content creation: each month, a portion of stablecoin income comes in, and you also have to pay for tools, advertising, AI data services, and other expenses monthly. The original approach was to keep the money in an exchange or cold wallet and transfer it out only when needed. Now, let’s change the thought process: first convert the operational funds needed into USD1, connect it to USD1+ OTF, allowing it to earn a bit more before your actual payment; if you are optimistic about BTC in the long run but don't want to watch the market daily, then convert some positions into stBTC / enzoBTC and let them work quietly in the 'Bitcoin yield layer'; when you truly feel this system deserves the name 'company', then consider locking a small amount of BANK into veBANK, to seriously look at voting, strategies, and how the protocol treasury spends.
If you are also ready to get started, I personally would break this path down into three natural steps. First, complete the information in your mind, at least read through the Binance Academy article on Lorenzo, a couple of long articles about veBANK and OTF from Square, and a few research papers on USD1+ / stBTC from various exchanges to clarify 'where the money comes from and where it goes'; then, with a small position that you are completely unconcerned about, walk through the subscription and redemption of USD1+ OTF on the BNB chain, and try using a bit of BTC to mint stBTC or buy a small amount of BNB+, leaving yourself a few weeks of observation period to see if the yield curve, net value updates, and mental experience are comfortable; finally, if you find yourself unconsciously treating Lorenzo as an asset allocation tool rather than a speculative target, then study the locking mechanism of veBANK, how protocol income flows back, and how to participate in strategy voting, gradually transforming yourself from a 'customer' to a 'partner'.
Whether we want to admit it or not, CeDeFAI, combined with AI and RWA, is pushing 'yield-generating dollars' and 'working bitcoins' into a new stage: they are no longer just digits in a wallet, but 'programmable assets' that can be governed, voted on, and combined into strategies. Lorenzo's recent updates around USD1+, veBANK, AI algorithms, B2B settlement, and RWA collateral are essentially paving a longer road: from retail investors to corporate finance, to institutional funds, attempting to make the same OTF infrastructure serve the funding needs of different levels. As for whether you want to entrust your time value and capital security to this system, as I have always said—first understand, then act; first be a user, then consider whether to become a shareholder; step forward half a pace in headwinds, and dare to press pause in tailwinds, this is probably the most realistic requirement of the CeDeFAI era for us ordinary players.
