Citrea Secures $14 Million in Funding to Innovate Bitcoin's Utility with ZK Technology
Citrea aims to revolutionize Bitcoin by making it a programmable asset through its newly raised funding.
Citrea Secures $14 Million in Funding to Innovate Bitcoin's Utility with ZK Technology
Bitcoin rollup Citrea has successfully secured $14 million in Series A funding, led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. The project aims to enhance Bitcoin's functionality by transforming it into a platform for smart contracts, integrating zero-knowledge (ZK) technology to enable Bitcoin to function as a programmable asset.
The goal of increasing Bitcoin's utility is considered critical by Citrea, which emphasizes the vital need for programmability in Bitcoin.
Investment Details
The funding round included prominent angel investors such as Erik Voorhees and Balaji Srinivasan. Citrea had previously raised $2.7 million in seed funding earlier this year, focusing on a computing paradigm that allows for Ethereum-style smart contracts to be utilized on the Bitcoin network.
Technology and Future Aspirations
According to Orkun Mahir Kılıç, the CEO of the company building Citrea, it is designed to be EVM-compatible, allowing existing Ethereum applications to run on its infrastructure without modification. This innovative layer aims to bolster Bitcoin's capabilities while also addressing its scalability challenges, which could jeopardize its relevance in the rapidly evolving DeFi sector.
Citrea argues that without a proper scalability solution, Bitcoin may risk falling into obsolescence due to reliance on third-party solutions for transaction executions.
