2 hours ago
Founders Fund and Galaxy Ventures-backed Bitcoin zero-knowledge rollup (ZK-rollup) Citrea launched its mainnet connected Tuesday with BTC collateral lending, BTC-structured products and a caller US dollar stablecoin, ctUSD.
The launch is aimed astatine turning what Citrea calls “economically idle” Bitcoin (BTC) into basal collateral for decentralized concern (DeFi) and payments, portion anchoring much of that enactment to Bitcoin’s basal layer.
The squad expects progressive DeFi liquidity to scope $50 cardinal successful the archetypal fewer weeks, with BTC lending, BTC-structured products, and decentralized trading already unrecorded from time one.
The mainnet debut instantly dropped Citrea into a acquainted Bitcoin argument: What should scarce BTC artifact abstraction really beryllium utilized for?
With block rewards declining implicit time, galore developers spot non‑payment usage cases similar Citrea arsenic indispensable to sustaining miner interest revenue.
However, purists reason Bitcoin’s constricted capableness should beryllium reserved for simple, censorship‑resistant payments alternatively than analyzable fiscal systems built connected top.
CtUSD aims to hole Bitcoin stablecoin liquidity
CtUSD is issued by MoonPay, a regulated crypto payments and infrastructure steadfast that provides fiat connected and off‑ramps for integer assets.
Related: Animoca, RootstockLabs spouse to bring Bitcoin DeFi to Japanese institutions
It is backed 1:1 by currency and short‑term US Treasurys, and marketed arsenic a compliance‑forward alternate to wrapped Tether (USDT) and wrapped USDC (USDC) that circulate connected Bitcoin‑adjacent stacks.
Orkun Mahir Kılıç, the co‑founder and CEO of Chainway Labs, the institution down Citrea, told Cointelegraph that ctUSD was “natively issued” connected its rollup alternatively than bridged from different chain, and wired into MoonPay’s Iron banking infrastructure.
That setup includes banking‑grade rails specified arsenic virtual International Bank Account Numbers (vIBANs), allowing users to ligament successful fiat that is automatically converted into ctUSD and settled onchain.
Citrea motorboat and the experimentation for artifact abstraction demand. Source: CitreaWhy ctUSD’s ‘native’ plan matters
Because Citrea is “the Bitcoin exertion furniture anchored to Bitcoin’s information model,” ctUSD “inherits the information properties of the Citrea web itself.”
That reduces immoderate of the risks inherent successful different DeFi protocols, since bridged assets “inherit the information risks of their weakest link,” Kılıç said.
He added that ctUSD, by being natively issued, was harmless from external span hacks, and “not babelike connected the solvency of a third-party wrapping protocol.”
Unlike different ecosystems wherever “liquidity is divided crossed aggregate bridged versions of the aforesaid asset,” ctUSD is “the single, preferred stablecoin for Citrea,” eliminating the “liquidity fragmentation that typically traps superior and increases slippage for lenders and traders.”
Related: Crypto marketplace could scope $28T by 2030 connected Bitcoin, DeFi and tokenization — ARK
Kılıç argued that combining a Bitcoin‑anchored rollup with a regulated stablecoin and banking integrations was designed to “systematically boost supply” and germinate ctUSD “from a motorboat plus into the modular liquidity furniture for the Bitcoin economy” implicit the adjacent six to 12 months.
On the testnet, Citrea says its information availability usage unsocial accounted for astir 10% of Bitcoin’s monthly information bandwidth astatine 1 point, a motion that adjacent pre‑launch rollup enactment tin devour a meaningful portion of Bitcoin artifact space.
Citrea motorboat reignites artifact abstraction wars
Bitcoin halfway developer and Casa main information serviceman Jameson Lopp called the rollout “the adjacent expansive experimentation successful generating sustainable request for artifact space.”
However, 1 follower pointed retired that Citrea users are not virtually lending, trading and settling connected the Bitcoin web arsenic described, but connected Citrea’s Ethereum Virtual Machine, with Bitcoin lone storing the proofs, efficaciously turning Bitcoin into a “filing cabinet” for rollup receipts.
He pointed to Citrea’s “single sequencer,” offchain treasury, and “10‑party federation,” arsenic spot assumptions that move, alternatively than remove, risk. “You cognize the difference. You’re pretending you don’t,” helium jibed astatine Lopp.
Big questions: Would Bitcoin past a 10-year powerfulness outage?
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This quality nonfiction is produced successful accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to supply close and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify accusation independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy
English (US) 