Backed by Founders Fund and Galaxy Ventures, Citrea introduces ctUSD via MoonPay, aiming to expand Bitcoin’s role into lending, trading, and institutional settlement.
Citrea, a Bitcoin-focused application platform funded by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Galaxy Ventures, has launched its mainnet to enable Bitcoin-backed lending, trading, and structured products directly on the Bitcoin network. The rollout includes ctUSD, a stablecoin issued by MoonPay and fully backed by short-term U.S. Treasury bills and cash, designed to comply with anticipated U.S. stablecoin regulations such as those outlined in the GENIUS Act framework. The project, developed by Chainway Labs, aims to create an institutional-grade settlement layer for Bitcoin capital markets without intermediaries or wrapped BTC. Citrea has raised $16.7 million over two funding rounds and claims over 30 Bitcoin-native applications are ready to deploy. Competitors such as Botanix and Stacks are pursuing similar goals of monetizing idle BTC holdings. Citrea’s strategy seeks to broaden Bitcoin’s utility beyond passive holding into active financial use cases.