Citrea raises $2.7m in seed funding to advance ZK-rollup for Bitcoin development
Citrea, a project that focuses on integrating zero-knowledge rollups with Bitcoin, has successfully raised $2.7 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by Galaxy Ventures, a part of Galaxy Digital, and marks a significant milestone in enhancing Bitcoin’s capabilities for decentralized finance (defi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Blockchain infrastructure company Chainway Labs, the team behind Citrea, stated on February 2nd that the funds raised would play a crucial role in bringing the project to fruition. Citrea stands out as the first rollup technology to expand Bitcoin’s blockspace using zero-knowledge technology. This advancement allows for a wider range of developments directly on Bitcoin’s network.
The seed round, completed in 2023, saw participation from Delphi Ventures, Taproot Wizards co-founder Eric Wall, Blockscout founder Igor Barinov, and other investors.
Bitcoin’s development community has traditionally focused on maintaining the simplicity and functionality of the network for peer-to-peer transactions. However, recent technological advancements, such as BitVM and Ordinals inscriptions, have expanded Bitcoin’s use cases by incorporating features like NFTs and programmable smart contracts, which were previously exclusive to smart contract-enabled blockchains like Ethereum.
Citrea aims to utilize zero-knowledge cryptography to enable private, secure, and efficient data transfers. This technology, already crucial in scaling efforts on Ethereum’s blockchain through rollups, bundles transactions on a secondary layer before settling them on the main chain. This process significantly improves transaction speeds and reduces costs, making blockchain technology more accessible and practical for various applications.
The introduction of ZK-rollups to Bitcoin through Citrea represents a significant cross-pollination of technology from Ethereum’s ecosystem. It allows developers to transfer applications between these major platforms. Citrea’s utilization of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) further simplifies this process, providing a bridge for developers familiar with Ethereum’s environment to explore Bitcoin’s expanding capabilities.
Zero-knowledge rollups are part of a larger trend aimed at enhancing blockchain efficiency and privacy. As Citrea continues to develop, its goal is to address Bitcoin’s transactional limitations and support a wider range of applications without altering the foundational consensus rules of the Bitcoin network.
This latest initiative reflects the growing recognition of Bitcoin’s potential not only as a digital currency but also as a foundational layer for secure and settled transactions across various applications.
