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Transforming Bitcoin: From Digital Gold to Financial Infrastructure

Market Movers: The Opening Bell

October 30, 2025

Video Transcript

Mm.

Investors like Tom Lee and Matt Hogan have highlighted Ethereum and Salana for their Deie capabilities, including tokenization and stablecoins.

Now Bitcoin, traditionally seen as a store of value, is now expanding into some of these same areas, and Honeybee is the first Bitcoin native platform enabling compliant tokenization of traditional real world assets built in partnership with Arch Network, a Bitcoin native smart contract platform.

Me this morning to weigh in is Josh Gordon, CEO of Honeybee, along with Matt Moano, who's CEO of Arch Network.

Gentlemen, good morning.

Thank you so much for joining us.

So Matt, let's start out with you now.

Satoshi created Bitcoin to solve the double banking problem, but not necessarily for tokenization or stablecoin.

So can you walk us through how Bitcoin is evolving from digital gold into the base layer for a new financial system?

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, as you mentioned, Bitcoin really started as a form of digital gold, and we're witnessing a real-time transition into a, you know, financial layer so that ultimately Bitcoin started as a store of value, but what we're seeing now is Bitcoin maturing into this financial infrastructure, a settlement layer that underpins real economic activity.

You know, Arch's role is to make Bitcoin productive and programmable, not by changing Bitcoin specifically, but by building a programmable layer anchored directly to it.

Uh, so it's one thing to think about Bitcoin as the asset, but now we can start thinking of it as a settlement rails.

Yeah, and Josh, I want to turn to you about investing.

So there are investors out there who want returns instead of holding on to Bitcoin forever and so interested in earning yield on Bitcoin has been on the rise.

So for our viewers out there, what is Honeybee and how does it make institutional yield accessible through Bitcoin?

Guy Remy, thank you so much.

I appreciate being here.

You know, this has been a problem that's been really near and dear to my heart.

I've been working for the last 2 years on bringing institutional yield on chain, and it's been something that I think is really critical for us to bring the DFI ecosystem from something that's, you know, more of a degen playground, ultimately to an institutional marketplace that's sustainable.

What we've seen right now is most of the yields that have been derived on Bitcoin. over the, you know, even since all the way since 2013, has been done primarily through a basis trade strategy or through token emissions that are essentially propping up that yield.

This is not scalable or sustainable.

If you try to bring the institutional yield, that could be, that's that really where the demand is right now from Bitcoin, it would compress all of those yields and there's no real sustainable outcome.

So what I've been working on doing is trying to ultimately bring the private credit markets and the fixed income markets directly to institutional Bitcoin.

For me, ultimately it's a match made in heaven.

It was something that we couldn't do until the Arch network was up and operational, and we feel like this solution is going to be perfect for digital asset treasury businesses, uh, Bitcoin on balance sheet of publicly traded companies, minors, and family offices moving forward.

Yeah, speaking of which, I do want to ask you, Matt, why has programmability historically been difficult on a Bitcoin and how does the Arch network finally make this possible without bridges or wrapped assets?

Yeah, I mean, historically speaking, Bitcoin's design principles have prioritized security and up time and simplicity over programmability and expressivity, which ultimately paved the way for other chains like Ethereum and Solana to kind of fill that void.

But a few years back there was an upgrade to Bitcoin's core architecture that allowed to store arbitrary data on Bitcoin for the very first time.

And that paved the way for innovations just like Arch where we can use that precursor, that prerequisite to be able to do more things natively at the base layer.

It just required new types of infrastructure that had never been built yet, new cryptography, new type of VM, and that's ultimately what Arch created so that we can actually do Bitcoin anchored settlement.

The same exact elliptic curve in the cryptographic infrastructure that Bitcoin already uses.

So without necessarily changing Bitcoin and introducing risks that most Bitcoin holders didn't sign up for, we're able to apply these new principles and ideas to Bitcoin, whereas before it was previously impossible.

Yeah, so for institutions out there that are already holding Bitcoin, Josh, how can they now make their Bitcoin productive without leaving custody of Bitcoin or taking DI smart contract risks?

Yeah, it's one of the great things that we're able to do is you can actually leave your institutional Bitcoin direct with your custody provider, whether that's an anchorage or or HX trusts, depending on where that is, Coinbase.

Uh, we're able to print a derivative directly with the Arch ecosystem, bring that into our, uh, essentially lending protocol. which gives us the ability to borrow stablecoins direct to then go out and purchase these underlying fixed income assets to derive that yield and pay that yield back to you in either stablecoin yield, dollar yield, or we can actually pay it back to you in Bitcoin denominated yield, which is really one of the special things because most people want to be able to remain inside the Bitcoin asset class itself.

And finally, Matt, from a financial system standpoint, why is a programmable Bitcoin more impactful than say a speculative narrative?

But ultimately, I think it means financial products, right?

You have yield, credit, tokenized assets that can now clear and settle on Bitcoin rails, which I think is extremely powerful.

And if you think of it, bringing the infrastructure of Wall Street onto the world's most secure balance sheet, I think that's the true opportunity here.

You have over a $2 trillion asset class and the most widely distributed and adopted digital asset on the planet.

Um, so you match that with the power of bringing in the on-chain economy and DI to that asset, and now you have a home run.

OK, Matt and Josh, thank you so much for joining us.

Speaking of Wall Street, US markets are about to open here, so we'll have to leave it there.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Thanks for having us.

“It’s one thing to think about Bitcoin as the asset, but now we can start thinking of it as settlement rails.” – 01:20

Remy Blaire engages in a thought-provoking discussion with two prominent figures in the cryptocurrency space: Matt Mudano, CEO of Arch Network, and Josh Gordon, CEO of HoneyB. The conversation centers around the evolving role of Bitcoin as it transitions from being viewed primarily as digital gold to becoming a foundational layer for a new financial system.

Remy opens the segment by highlighting the insights of investors like Tom Lee and Matt Hogan, who have pointed out the DeFi capabilities of Ethereum and Solana, particularly in areas such as tokenization and stablecoins. She notes that Bitcoin is now expanding into these domains, introducing HoneyB as the first Bitcoin-native platform designed for compliant tokenization of traditional real-world assets, developed in partnership with Arch Network.

The discussion begins with Matt Mudano explaining how Bitcoin, initially created to address the double spending problem, is now evolving into a financial infrastructure that supports real economic activity. He emphasizes that Arch Network’s role is to enhance Bitcoin’s functionality by creating a programmable layer that operates directly on the Bitcoin network, allowing it to serve as a settlement layer.

Josh Gordon then shares his vision for HoneyB, detailing the challenges faced by investors seeking returns on their Bitcoin holdings. He explains that the current methods of generating yield, which have relied on basis trade strategies and token emissions, are neither scalable nor sustainable. Josh outlines his efforts to integrate private credit and fixed income markets with institutional Bitcoin, aiming to create a more robust and sustainable yield environment.

The conversation shifts to the historical difficulties of programmability on Bitcoin. Matt elaborates on how Bitcoin’s design has prioritized security and simplicity, which has limited its programmability compared to other blockchain platforms. However, he points out that recent upgrades to Bitcoin’s core architecture have enabled the storage of arbitrary data, paving the way for innovations like Arch Network that can enhance Bitcoin’s capabilities without compromising its security.

Josh further explains how institutions can now leverage their Bitcoin holdings to generate yield without losing custody or exposing themselves to the risks associated with DeFi smart contracts. He describes how HoneyB allows institutions to maintain their Bitcoin with trusted custody providers while utilizing the Arch ecosystem to create derivatives and access stablecoin yields.

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