Citrea Raises $14M to Expand Bitcoin Beyond Digital Gold

Citrea, the pioneering solution enabling extensive applications on Bitcoin, has announced its $14 million Series A funding round, led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, with participation from notable investors including Erik Voorhees, Balaji Srinivasan, and Jameson Lopp. Additionally, Citrea has launched ‘Citrea Origins,’ an exclusive developer program aimed at fostering a select group of developers to build on its platform, which expands Bitcoin’s utility.

While Bitcoin has established itself as “digital gold,” its broader financial potential remains largely untapped due to the absence of a scalability solution that adheres to its core principles. This limitation has forced users to treat Bitcoin as a passive asset or rely on custodians for more extensive use, undermining its role in decentralized finance.

Citrea is the first Bitcoin scalability solution that enhances Bitcoin’s functionality without compromising decentralization or security. By utilizing zero-knowledge technology, Citrea allows the Bitcoin network to support a variety of on-chain applications, enabling users to trustlessly buy, lend, borrow, and leverage BTC—transforming it from a mere store of value into an active financial tool.

Joey Krug, Partner at Founders Fund, emphasized Citrea’s significance in Bitcoin’s evolution, praising its technical design and the team’s strength. Orkun Kilic, co-founder and CEO of Chainway Labs, highlighted that Citrea combines cryptographic advancements with rigorous engineering to facilitate Bitcoin’s transition into a robust decentralized finance ecosystem, laying the groundwork for a future of global hyperbitcoinization.

About Citrea

Chainway Labs, the company building Citrea, was co-founded by four young computer scientists and entrepreneurs with a focus on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and zero-knowledge technology.