What is LBTC (Lombard staked bitcoin)?

LBTC is a liquid staked bitcoin token created by Lombard, a project incubated at the investment firm Polychain. When you deposit BTC with Lombard, the coins are staked through Babylon and you receive LBTC one for one, which you can trade or use as collateral while the staked bitcoin keeps earning. It launched in August 2024, according to a Jupiter Lend risk report.

What is LBTC crypto?

LBTC is a token that stands for staked bitcoin. The idea is the same as liquid staking on proof-of-stake chains: your coins stay staked, but you hold a tradable receipt. Lombard raised a $16 million seed round led by Polychain in July 2024, The Block reported, with plans to plug LBTC into Ethereum DeFi apps. As of April 2026, Jupiter's report counted 12 supported ecosystems, including Ethereum, Base and Solana, where LBTC went live in August 2025.

Rewards from staking are not paid out as new tokens. According to Jupiter, they accrue to LBTC's exchange rate, so each token slowly becomes redeemable for a little more BTC over time.

How does Lombard LBTC work?

An audit by OpenZeppelin describes the flow. A user sends BTC to a Lombard deposit address. Lombard's own ledger, a chain built with the Cosmos SDK, checks the deposit, and LBTC is minted on the blockchain the user chooses. To exit, the user burns LBTC and the matching BTC is released. Kiln, one of Lombard's signers, says unstaking takes 7 days.

Operations are approved by a security consortium of institutions using threshold signatures, with a two-thirds majority needed for major actions. Jupiter's report names 14 members, including OKX, Galaxy and Wintermute. OpenZeppelin notes the consortium is permissioned and has no slashing or financial penalties of its own, so users trust that most members behave honestly.

How are LBTC and Babylon linked?

LBTC depends on Babylon bitcoin staking. The deposited BTC is locked in Babylon's time-locked scripts on the Bitcoin network, and the rewards, paid in BABY, are the source of LBTC's yield. That means LBTC carries Babylon's risks as well as Lombard's, including bugs in Bitcoin scripts and slashing if a finality provider misbehaves. The wider set of risks is covered in can you stake bitcoin.

What is the difference between LBTC vs WBTC?

Wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) is a plain claim on BTC held by a custodian and earns nothing by itself. LBTC is backed by BTC that is staked, so it earns rewards but adds staking risk and a waiting period to exit. Kiln warns that LBTC can trade below its backing during volatile markets while users wait to unstake. Both also rely on bridges and smart contracts when moved between chains.

Crypto prices are volatile, and a staked bitcoin token depends on its issuer, its signers and the staking protocol beneath it.