At first, keeping Bitcoin on its balance sheet seemed like the boldest move it could make as a company. Companies were left exposed to a scarce asset that is appreciated with the conviction that it is the best form of money. But now a new paradigm is emerging: using Bitcoin as money, not just as a long-duration asset reserve. Thanks to the Lightning Network, Bitcoin treasury companies can start earning native non-custodial returns by supporting the payments infrastructure itself, a complete breakthrough for corporations looking to put their BTC treasury strategy into practice.
In the short term, Bitcoin treasury companies gain a new source of return by deploying idle BTC into Lightning liquidity channels, earning routing fees and transaction volume rewards. They also improve treasury efficiency by keeping capital liquid and generating income, rather than holding it passively. This turns your Bitcoin from a dormant store of value to productive digital capital that compounds financial and strategic returns.
The ability to leverage native bitcoin payments to increase revenue is important in a way that transcends mere performance. It aligns the incentives of treasurers, payments companies, and Bitcoin’s broader mission: the more companies route payments and provide liquidity, the better the Lightning network becomes, fostering greater usage, adoption, and value. The Bitcoin payment stack as money is no longer hypothetical. This week, Square announced that starting November 10, the more than four million small businesses with Square terminals will be able to accept Bitcoin payments via Lightning. Earlier this year, at Bitcoin 2025, Cash App reported that already 25% of its Bitcoin payments were processed via Lightning.
That combination – treasury companies deploying Bitcoin as productive capital, plus increased payment volume through Lightning-enabled merchants – represents a powerful inflection point for the Bitcoin economy.
From passive reserve to active profit
What does it look like in practice? A treasury company holding Bitcoin can lend or deploy that liquidity on the Lightning network. They can sell liquidity to market participants, new entrants, payment originators, consumer wallets, who need depth in the inbound or outbound channel, using tools like Amboss. As payments circulate through the network, treasurers also earn routing fees: each payment sent is a small reward, which accumulates with scale.
Unlike custodial yield products (which often introduce counterparty risk or centralized control), this yield is native to the network. Custody is always maintained by simply placing liquidity on the network and allowing market participants to route through the users node. This not only upholds the spirit of Bitcoin sovereignty, but also enhances Bitcoin’s utility.
Consider two test points:
- LQWD (a publicly traded company) has disclosed an annualized return of 24% in its filings. Their conservative benchmark models illustrate how routing and liquidity provision can produce significant returns.
- Cash App/Lock has publicly highlighted a 9.79% yield on Lightning – its growth in payments processed by Lightning suggests upward pressure on liquidity demand, driving direct upside revenue for liquidity providers and node operators.
These case studies validate that bitcoin’s non-custodial performance is not theoretical, it is happening now and the momentum is real.
The virtuous circle: payments, liquidity and network growth
As more merchants accept Bitcoin via Lightning, payment volume increases and with it, the need for liquidity that treasury companies are uniquely positioned to meet. This increasing demand for liquidity drives increased routing activity, which in turn improves node performance, channel connectivity, latency, and reliability across the network.
A recent report from Fidelity Digital Assets highlights how Lightning is expanding Bitcoin’s use cases from a passive store of value to an active, scalable medium of exchange, one in which liquidity providers play a central role in improving the payment experience. Better infrastructure attracts more users and frictionless transactions, reinforcing a growth flywheel anchored in Bitcoin’s fixed supply and utility as sound money.
That flywheel works through alignment: treasury companies deploying capital, merchants embracing Lightning, and users seeking instant, low-cost deals. The recent integration of Cash App and Square may be the biggest catalyst yet, connecting millions of merchants to that network in a single move.
Why this performance is unlike any other
- Non-custodial: Users/treasurers never give up control. Performance accrues organically from the utility of the network, not from trusting a third party.
- Bitcoin Native Composition: The asset that both users and treasury companies own is the asset that generates income. Tokens cannot be exchanged or converted; Bitcoin does all the work on the network.
- Scarcity Leverage: With Bitcoin limited to 21 million, each additional unit of productive capital becomes more significant in a world of increasing network utilization.
- Network alignment: Performance through routing directly reinforces the health of the Lightning payments infrastructure, resulting in less friction, more liquidity, and a better user experience.
- Advantages of scalability: Because each added payment and route is cumulative, the performance opportunity increases as the network scales.
These properties contrast sharply with fixed returns, participation derivatives or custodial interest accounts, which often introduce centralization, dilution or counterparty risk.
The challenges and barriers
However, this model is not without challenges.
Operating Lightning Network nodes requires technical expertise to manage channel strategies, handle failed HTLCs (Hash Time Locked Contracts), and rebalance liquidity, although B2B enterprise solutions can simplify these challenges, eliminating the need for businesses to deal with this complexity.
Poorly placed liquidity risks idling or missing opportunities, exposing capital to inefficiencies. Network congestion and competitive rate undercutting can compress routing rates, making a differentiated strategy and strong reputation critical to success. Meanwhile, Bitcoin market volatility, driven by unpredictable macroeconomic changes, poses risks for liquidity providers even though returns are denominated in Bitcoin.
However, these risks are well-understood operational and infrastructure challenges in the Lightning community; the advantage makes them worth browsing.
Moving away from the HODL-only mentality
If you manage a Bitcoin treasury, now is the time to move from a passive reserve to an active participant. Don’t just HODL, put your Bitcoin to work for the network. Evaluate your node strategy. Partner with Lightning infrastructure providers. Explore new routing strategies. Support your claim on the Bitcoin payments layer.
The convergence we are seeing, from Cash App’s push into Lightning payments to the growing native yield opportunity, signals the beginning of the Lightning era for Treasuries. Companies that lean in now will gain benefits: performance, differentiation, and mission alignment in one package.
When Treasuries stop treating Bitcoin as a static asset and start using it as a living network, they discover what has been there all along: a return engine driven by real payments, not speculation.
