On April 16, Matthew Sigel, director of digital asset research at VanEck, proposed a new debt instrument called "BitBonds", which combines U.S. Treasury bonds with Bitcoin exposure as a new strategy to manage the government's upcoming $14 trillion in refinancing needs. The concept was proposed at the Strategic Bitcoin Reserves Summit and aims to address sovereign funding needs and investors 'need for inflation protection. Bitbonds will be designed as 10-year securities, consisting of 90% exposure to traditional U.S. Treasuries and 10% bitcoin, which is partially funded by bond sales proceeds. At maturity, investors will receive the full value of the U.S. Treasury portion, or $90 for every $100 of bonds, plus the value allocated by Bitcoin. In addition, investors will receive all the rising gains on Bitcoin until its maturity yield reaches 4.5%. Any gains above that threshold will be split equally between the government and bondholders. Sigel said that for investors who believe in Bitcoin, bitbonds will be a "convex bet" because the tool will provide asymmetric upside while retaining a layer of risk-free returns. However, its structure means that investors will bear the entire downside risk of Bitcoin exposure. Previously, the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) proposed issuing Bitcoin bonds (BitBonds) to help the United States repay its national debt.