• Investors gain access to bitcoin at below market rates via forward hashrate contracts directly from miners.
• Miners have immediate access to liquidity and can hedge against market volatility.

Loka Mining has launched a protocol with a decentralized bitcoin (BTC) mining pool that allows miners to sell their future rewards to institutional investors at a discount and gives them instant access to cash for operational use.

The product, in collaboration with sustainable miner Hashlabs, is likely to appeal to companies whose revenue has been hit by the recent halving, and offers a way of hedging against market volatility.

Loka will launch a permissionless protocol that gives investors access to bitcoin at below-market prices through forward hashrate contracts directly from the miners, the company said in a Tuesday press release. The contracts will be overcollateralized and tokenized for immediate liquidity in secondary markets, Loka said.

“We’ve seen tremendous interest from larger investors seeking better ways to access bitcoin, and thanks to Hashlabs’ supply of hashrate and access to miners, we’re providing that – with no counterparty risk,” said Andy Fajar Handika, founder of Loka, in the release.

“This protocol provides non-custodial, trust-minimized access to bitcoin that rewards miners for the work they do providing a necessary service for the network,” Handika said.

Loka’s investors and backers include BTC Startup Lab, Dfinity Foundation, Outlier Ventures and Kilonova Ventures.