Hey CryptoPM fam! 🎉 I’m thrilled to bring you some groundbreaking news about a project that’s taking Bitcoin to the next level
In an exciting leap for Bitcoin’s evolution, Citrea has just raised $14 million in a Series A funding round, led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and joined by other influential investors, including Maven11, Mirana, dao5, Erik Voorhees, Balaji Srinivasan, Nikil Viswanathan, Mert Mumtaz, and Jameson Lopp. This funding—bringing Citrea’s total to $16.7 million—fuels our drive to empower Bitcoin beyond its established role as "digital gold" and transform it into a fully programmable financial asset with real-world DeFi applications.
Elevating Bitcoin Beyond Digital Gold
Bitcoin has long been celebrated as a "digital gold," a decentralized store of value that ensures security and trust. Yet, its true potential has remained somewhat locked up due to limited scalability and programmability. Traditionally, expanding Bitcoin’s use cases often meant using intermediaries, which came with increased risks. Citrea changes this by introducing a zero-knowledge rollup that expands Bitcoin’s core capabilities—now, Bitcoin can support trust-minimized smart contracts without compromising security or decentralization, giving users a flexible, more robust alternative to centralized finance.
“Citrea represents a pivotal step for Bitcoin’s next phase,” said Joey Krug, Partner at Founders Fund. “With its trust-minimized architecture, Citrea’s zero-knowledge rollup is a breakthrough in Bitcoin Layer 2 design, unlocking smart contract functionality many have eagerly awaited.”
Citrea’s Unique Zero-Knowledge Rollup: Secure, Scalable, and Trust-Minimized
Citrea’s zero-knowledge rollup is a unique, sophisticated tool that allows Bitcoin to maintain its foundational security while opening up opportunities for programmable applications that support decentralized finance. By leveraging zero-knowledge technology, Citrea introduces trust-minimized financial activities on Bitcoin—users can now buy, lend, borrow, and leverage Bitcoin with ease, minus the middlemen. The result? A pathway to a dynamic Bitcoin-driven financial ecosystem that empowers both individual and institutional users.
Launching Citrea Origins: A Developer Program for Bitcoin-Powered DeFi
To spearhead this mission, citrea is launching Citrea Origins, an exclusive developer program that brings together the best minds to shape the future of Bitcoin-backed decentralized applications. Developers from around the world will converge in Bangkok, Thailand, from November 3-10, for the inaugural cohort to work hands-on with our team, creating applications ranging from Bitcoin-backed stablecoins to decentralized lending platforms and more. Citrea Origins will be instrumental in realizing our vision of a Bitcoin-backed economy, allowing developers to innovate and unlock Bitcoin’s potential in DeFi.
"Citrea is paving the way for a Bitcoin-centered financial ecosystem,” said Orkun Kilic, co-founder and CEO of Chainway Labs. “By enabling Bitcoin to power decentralized finance, we’re building infrastructure for a new monetary standard that’s censorship-resistant, secure, and expansive.”
About Citrea
Citrea is pioneering a zero-knowledge rollup for Bitcoin, pushing the blockchain beyond a store of value to become an active, programmable platform for a decentralized financial ecosystem. With Citrea, Bitcoin gains the scalability needed to support diverse financial applications, becoming a key driver of decentralized finance.
About Chainway Labs
Chainway Labs, the team behind Citrea, was founded by experts in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and cryptography, including medal-winning Olympians in mathematics and computer science. Their mission? To shape the future of Bitcoin as a central player in global finance.
Citrea’s Series A funding and innovative technology signal a promising new era for Bitcoin, turning it from a static asset into a programmable powerhouse for decentralized finance. This is more than an upgrade; it’s a redefinition of Bitcoin’s place in a secure, Trust-Minimized, and globally accessible financial landscape.
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