Stripe, valued at $91 billion and serving 1.2 million users, is seeking a bank charter that would enable it to serve Bitcoin and cryptocurrency businesses. The move would allow Stripe to expand its services to the growing digital asset sector. Several new products and protocols are being launched to unlock the potential of Bitcoin in decentralized finance (DeFi). CleanSpark Inc. has shifted from holding Bitcoin to a strategy of selling part of its monthly BTC holdings, securing a $200 million credit line from Coinbase Prime to self-fund operations. CleanSpark currently holds 12,000 BTC, valued at over $1 billion. Lombard Finance has introduced a toolkit that allows platforms to offer one-click Bitcoin staking, aiming to tap into the $154 billion in idle bitcoin. Major exchanges Binance and Bybit have already integrated the toolkit, which enables users to stake BTC and mint a liquid staking token, LBTC, for use in DeFi protocols. Lombard’s DeFi Vault currently holds over $200 million in total value locked. Bitcoin staking through Lombard's system began seven months ago and has grown into a $4 billion market. The protocol expanded with the launch of LBTC on the Sui blockchain and is powered by smart contract provider Veda. Other protocols, including Coredao_Org and Avalon Finance, have launched products to facilitate non-custodial BTC staking and on-chain lending. Core unlocked $410 million through non-custodial BTC staking in less than a year, with ambitions to unlock $1.8 trillion in idle liquidity. Okutrade has launched BTC-backed lending and borrowing on Corn, powered by MorphoLabs and curated by SteakhouseFi, using BTCN, a BTC-pegged token. Avalon Finance offers fixed borrow rates and an overcollateralized structure. BOB has launched hybrid BTC yield products, and Bitcoin's market cap stands at $1.67 trillion.