- Citrea aims to expand the use of Bitcoin beyond a “digital gold” store of value by enabling DeFi services such as BTC lending, borrowing, and leveraging without intermediaries.
- Citrea leverages zero-knowledge technology to enhance Bitcoin’s scalability and supports Ethereum-like rollups, allowing Bitcoin to host a variety of on-chain applications while remaining secure and decentralized.
Citrea raised $14 million in a Series A funding round led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, with participation from key players in the cryptocurrency ecosystem including Erik Voorhees, Balaji Srinivasan, Jameson Lopp, and Maven11.
The funding marks the Founders Fund’s first venture into Bitcoin-focused investments and highlights the growing demand for Bitcoin solutions beyond its “digital gold” status.
Citrea scales Bitcoin-based DeFi
While Bitcoin’s appeal as a store of value has increased, its use in a wide range of financial applications remains limited. Citrea aims to break down these barriers by launching the first scalability solution that enhances the utility of Bitcoin without sacrificing decentralization or security.
Built on zero-knowledge technology, Citrea’s platform allows users to perform a variety of financial activities, including borrowing, lending, and leveraging BTC directly on the Bitcoin network without any intermediaries.
This latest funding will support Citrea’s broader mission to make Bitcoin an active financial tool and address long-standing scalability limitations in decentralized finance (DeFi).
“Citrea is a milestone in the evolution of Bitcoin,” said Joey Krug, Partner at Founders Fund. “The technology enables Ethereum-like rollups to Bitcoin smart contracts in a trust-minimized manner.”
At the same time, Citrea launched ‘Citrea Origins’, an exclusive program that invites developers to pioneer applications on the platform. This initiative is designed to build a Bitcoin-based DeFi ecosystem to realize the potential of applications that can drive Bitcoin-based decentralized finance at scale.
According to Orkun Kilic, CEO of Chainway Labs, Citrea aims to promote “HyperBitcoinization” through crypto advancements, enabling “a borderless economy and a censorship-resistant currency layer.”
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