Dave Weisberger, co-founder of CoinRoutes, argues that Bitcoin's most significant remaining unlock is not an exchange-traded fund or a corporate treasury vehicle, but collateral treatment. In a conversation with Grace Remington and Sean Hagan, Weisberger explained that the haircut banks currently face on Bitcoin is close to 100% — in lending terms, a haircut is the discount applied to an asset's value when it is pledged as collateral — and that once the asset is treated like any other based on volatility and liquidity, everything changes for lenders and for companies such as Strategy Inc (formerly MicroStrategy), which holds bitcoin on its corporate balance sheet.

He called collateral treatment the “final boss,” noting that the Basel committee and other rulemakers have all described the change as inevitable without it actually happening yet. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is the international body that sets capital standards for banks, so how it treats Bitcoin directly shapes how much capital lenders must hold against the asset — and, by extension, how usable Bitcoin is within the credit system, where collateral treatment determines borrowing capacity against a given asset.

The discussion also covered tokenization, Hyperliquid, and the Federal Reserve, along with why ETF money lowered Bitcoin's volatility and why, in Weisberger's view, FOMO has not even started. For readers following the collateral question, the marker to watch is whether the Basel committee and national regulators move from describing the treatment change as inevitable to formally aligning haircuts with volatility and liquidity — the shift Weisberger identifies as the gate for lenders and for balance-sheet companies like Strategy.

Episode Chapters

• 00:00 — Why Every Asset Gets Tokenized and Wall Street Is Backing It
• 02:00 — Bitcoin, Gold, and Equities as One Global Liquidity Pool
• 03:53 — Hyperliquid's Rise and the Appeal of Controlling Your Own Assets
• 05:27 — Perpetual Swaps, Segregated Accounts, and What Liquidations Really Mean
• 06:39 — Waves of Disruption From Program Trading to Citadel and Jane Street
• 08:06 — Tokenized Stocks, Walled Gardens, and the Open Source Alternative
• 10:05 — Why Every 25 Basis Points Adds $100 Billion to the Deficit
• 13:19 — Why ETF Money Lowered Bitcoin's Volatility
  15:24 — Covered Call Replacement Buying and Why FOMO Hasn't Started
• 18:18 — Bitcoin as an Asymmetric Option and the Pristine Collateral Problem

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.

This article first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and was written by Patrick Green.