Founders Fund and Galaxy Ventures-backed Bitcoin zero-knowledge rollup (ZK-rollup) Citrea launched its mainnet on Tuesday with BTC collateral lending, BTC-structured merchandise and a brand new US greenback stablecoin, ctUSD.
The launch is aimed toward turning what Citrea calls “economically idle” Bitcoin (BTC) into base collateral for decentralized finance (DeFi) and funds, whereas anchoring extra of that exercise to Bitcoin’s base layer.
The staff expects lively DeFi liquidity to succeed in $50 million within the first few weeks, with BTC lending, BTC-structured merchandise, and decentralized buying and selling already dwell from day one.
The mainnet debut instantly dropped Citrea into a well-recognized Bitcoin argument: What ought to scarce BTC block house truly be used for?
With block rewards declining over time, many builders see non‑cost use instances like Citrea as important to sustaining miner charge income.
Nevertheless, purists argue Bitcoin’s restricted capability ought to be reserved for easy, censorship‑resistant funds moderately than advanced monetary techniques constructed on high.
CtUSD goals to repair Bitcoin stablecoin liquidity
CtUSD is issued by MoonPay, a regulated crypto funds and infrastructure firm that gives fiat on- and off‑ramps for digital property.
Associated: Animoca, RootstockLabs companion to deliver Bitcoin DeFi to Japanese establishments
It’s backed 1:1 by money and quick‑time period US Treasurys, and marketed as a compliance‑ahead various to wrapped Tether (USDT) and wrapped USDC (USDC) that flow into on Bitcoin‑adjoining stacks.
Orkun Mahir Kılıç, the co‑founder and CEO of Chainway Labs, the corporate behind Citrea, informed Cointelegraph that ctUSD was “natively issued” on its rollup moderately than bridged from one other chain, and wired into MoonPay’s Iron banking infrastructure.
That setup consists of banking‑grade rails resembling digital Worldwide Financial institution Account Numbers (vIBANs), permitting customers to wire in fiat that’s mechanically transformed into ctUSD and settled onchain.
Why ctUSD’s ‘native’ design issues
As a result of Citrea is “the Bitcoin utility layer anchored to Bitcoin’s safety mannequin,” ctUSD “inherits the safety properties of the Citrea community itself.”
That reduces a number of the dangers inherent in different DeFi protocols, since bridged property “inherit the safety dangers of their weakest hyperlink,” Kılıç mentioned.
He added that ctUSD, by being natively issued, was protected from exterior bridge hacks, and “not depending on the solvency of a third-party wrapping protocol.”
In contrast to different ecosystems the place “liquidity is break up throughout a number of bridged variations of the identical asset,” ctUSD is “the one, most popular stablecoin for Citrea,” eliminating the “liquidity fragmentation that sometimes traps capital and will increase slippage for lenders and merchants.”
Associated: Crypto market might attain $28T by 2030 on Bitcoin, DeFi and tokenization — ARK
Kılıç argued that combining a Bitcoin‑anchored rollup with a regulated stablecoin and banking integrations was designed to “systematically enhance provide” and evolve ctUSD “from a launch asset into the usual liquidity layer for the Bitcoin financial system” over the following six to 12 months.
On the testnet, Citrea says its information availability utilization alone accounted for nearly 10% of Bitcoin’s month-to-month information bandwidth at one level, an indication that even pre‑launch rollup exercise can devour a significant slice of Bitcoin block house.
Citrea launch reignites block house wars
Bitcoin core developer and Casa chief safety officer Jameson Lopp known as the rollout “the following grand experiment in producing sustainable demand for block house.”
Nonetheless, one follower pointed out that Citrea customers usually are not actually lending, buying and selling and deciding on the Bitcoin community as described, however on Citrea’s Ethereum Digital Machine, with Bitcoin solely storing the proofs, successfully turning Bitcoin right into a “submitting cupboard” for rollup receipts.
He pointed to Citrea’s “single sequencer,” offchain treasury, and “10‑celebration federation,” as belief assumptions that transfer, moderately than take away, danger. “You recognize the distinction. You’re pretending you don’t,” he jibed at Lopp.
Huge questions: Would Bitcoin survive a 10-year energy outage?
