Babylon Labs, a developer focused on "trustless Bitcoin productivity," has announced a strategic partnership with hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger. The collaboration aims to expand access to Babylon's trustless Bitcoin vault infrastructure, making native bitcoin more usable as collateral in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications while preserving user self-custody.
The core of the integration is the introduction of native Ledger signer support for Babylon's BTCVaults. This allows users to authorize vault transactions directly from their Ledger hardware device using the company's Clear Signing interface. BTCVaults are designed to let bitcoin holders deploy their assets as collateral in DeFi without relying on custodians, bridges, or wrapped tokens. The assets remain on the Bitcoin network, governed by programmable conditions that are verified on-chain.
Babylon co-founder David Tse emphasized the significance of solving a major limitation in the crypto economy. "Bitcoin is the largest crypto asset, yet most of it cannot be used in digital finance without giving up custody or relying on intermediaries," Tse said. "Trustless Bitcoin Vaults remove that trade-off. Bitcoin stays on Bitcoin, governed by predefined conditions that are verified rather than trusted."
Ledger will serve as the secure signing layer for all vault interactions. A key feature is Ledger's Clear Signing system, which displays the full details of a transaction on the device's screen before user approval, ensuring transparency and security. Ledger Chief Technology Officer Charles Guillemet stated, "If not self-custody, why crypto? True self-custody relies on uncompromising security. Now, Babylon BTCVaults users can use secure signers featuring a dedicated screen as part of their security model."
The partnership also broadens Babylon's presence across the Ledger ecosystem, including connectivity through the Ledger Wallet application and support for Babylon's native token, BABY. This collaboration adds to Babylon's growing institutional backing; venture firm a16z Crypto previously purchased $15 million worth of BABY tokens to support BTCVaults development.
Babylon's technology is already seeing adoption. The project launched a self-custodial bitcoin staking protocol that has activated more than $10 billion worth of native BTC to secure proof-of-stake chains and Layer 2 networks. Crypto exchange Kraken introduced bitcoin staking through Babylon last year. Simultaneously, Ledger has expanded its own bitcoin-native tools, recently rolling out a BTC yield feature in Ledger Wallet developed with partners Lombard and Figment.
