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- Core and Hex Trust are bringing institutional-grade Bitcoin staking to APAC and MENA.
- Institutions can now earn rewards on Bitcoin while keeping custody and compliance.
- The move signals a broader shift toward yield-based Bitcoin strategies.
Core Foundation and Hex Trust have strengthened their partnership to provide institutional-grade Bitcoin staking across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. The collaboration combines Core’s Dual Staking technology with Hex Trust’s regulated custody platform.
The integration allows banks, asset managers, and family offices to time-lock Bitcoin with assets held under custody. Customers can be rewarded by staking BTC or CORE or both without sending assets to unregulated platforms. The staking feature has been incorporated directly into its custody product by Hex Trust to enable seamless access to its clients that require strict compliance.
The initiative places Core and Hex Trust at the nexus of Bitcoin security and institutional yield approaches. The collaborative initiative points to an increasing demand for regulated, productive uses of Bitcoin among traditional financial circles.
Dual Staking Locks Bitcoin to Secure Core Network
Institutions have been seeking ways to generate returns on dormant Bitcoin for quite some time. Double staking presents a straightforward solution. The mechanism connects BTC on-chain to lock up protection for the Core network, which operates EVM-compatible infrastructure. Rewards are derived wholly from blockchain action rather than mysterious off-chain protocols.
Hex Trust bundles this into a custody package that clients already utilize. That eliminates onboarding and compliance challenges with guaranteed licensed custody. The platform even comes with an embedded calculator to display estimated returns under varying settings of staking, providing allocators with better visibility on forecasts of performance.
Core has been constructing a broader product ecosystem as well. An example is LstBTC, a liquid yield-bearing Bitcoin product introduced with partners like Maple Finance, BitGo, and Copper. The product shows an example of how time-locked BTC can be used as collateral for mainstream financial instruments.
Core has emerged as the biggest Bitcoin-based DeFi network. The network already holds more than 7,000 time-locked BTC with over $500 million worth of DeFi value locked and validation by three-quarters of all Bitcoin mining hashpower. These statistics reflect why custodians and institutions are increasingly moving toward Core’s model.
Institutions Weigh BTC Exposure and CORE Rewards
Market conditions are also at play. Bitcoin has been strong throughout 2025, fluctuating around $116,000 during mid-August. CORE, the native token of the network, changes hands around $0.48. Institutions weighing staking programs will factor both BTC exposure and CORE returns within risk-return frameworks.
To APAC and MENA investors, with whom Hex Trust enjoys profound regulatory recognition, integration presents exposure to “BTCFi,” decentralized finance via Bitcoin-powered solutions. Managers of assets are able to investigate yield approaches without sacrificing custody or loss of compliance protection. The true test remains adoption at scale.
Businesses require predictable returns, explicit custody protocols, and transparent reporting prior to shifting large balances. If Core and Hex Trust follow through on these requirements, this alliance might be a watershed moment. Institutional exposure to Bitcoin could transition from passive storage to active yield generation as part of the larger theme of getting digital assets to function within regulated finance.
Related Reading: Bitcoin Faces Uncertainty as $3.78 Billion in Dormant BTC Moves
