Peter Thiel and Galaxy-backed Citrea wants to turn your bitcoin into a high-speed bank account
Citrea launched its mainnet and ctUSD stablecoin to enable Bitcoin-backed lending and high-speed settlement.Summary
Citrea, a Bitcoin application platform supported by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Galaxy Ventures, has launched its mainnet, aiming to unlock Bitcoin-denominated credit markets and facilitate direct use of bitcoin in lending, trading, and U.S. dollar settlement.
The launch includes ctUSD, a native stablecoin fully backed by short-term U.S. Treasury bills and cash, issued by MoonPay. Citrea positions ctUSD as a settlement and liquidity layer for institutional-grade activity, anchored natively to Bitcoin without relying on wrapped BTC or intermediaries.
Citrea, which has raised $16.7 million, is part of a growing trend of projects seeking to monetize idle Bitcoin through lending and stablecoin issuance, competing with platforms like Botanix and Stacks. The platform's CEO, Orkun Kilic, stated the mainnet is designed to bring Bitcoin-secured financial activity on-chain, and over 30 Bitcoin-native applications are ready to utilize its expanded financial use cases.
(Source：CoinDesk)