Most companies that hold Bitcoin on their balance sheet generate zero operational income from those holdings. The dominant playbook requires capital markets access, mNAV above 1, and continuous issuance capability. At least 37 of the top 100 Bitcoin treasury companies trade below net asset value. For most of the market, the only available return on self-custodied Bitcoin is price appreciation.

Lightning changes that. Capital deployed to the Lightning Network earns fee income through routing, turning over approximately 7x annually, at zero leverage, with the deployed capital, transacted medium, and earned revenue all being the same bitcoin, held by the same person, under the same custody. No property is surrendered.

I'm Chief Strategy Officer at ZEUS, where we operate managed Lightning infrastructure, including white-glove routing operations for institutional clients, family offices, HNWIs, and those adding bitcoin to their balance sheet. Before ZEUS, I founded and exited a digital products company over 13 years. Prior to that, I coached Olympians. Cullen Jones was the most recognizable one.

Find my broadcasts on LinkedIn and X, I engage more on nostr.