Bitcoin Is a $1.5 Trillion Asset. But Its Financial Market Is Still Just Getting Started. Gold has lending markets. Treasuries power the repo system. Ethereum has staking. Bitcoin has something interesting going on too, but there's still a long way to go. According to Rand Group Research, BTC futures open interest represents just 3.5% of its market value, compared with 10.1% for $ETH. These markets aren't directly comparable, but they highlight how differently financial infrastructure has developed around each asset. And that's where things get interesting. The next phase of Bitcoin adoption may not just be about institutions buying more $BTC. It could be about using Bitcoin as collateral, accessing liquidity without selling, and building deeper credit markets around it. Of course, lending brings risks that simply holding BTC doesn't. Bitcoin has already become a major financial asset. The infrastructure around it is still evolving.