Citrea launches mainnet and ctUSD to bring DeFi primitives onto Bitcoin

A new Bitcoin layer‑two called Citrea has moved from test phase to live mainnet, unveiling a native dollar-pegged token intended to act as the fiat bridge for BTC-denominated finance. The project relies on batching transactions off‑chain, executing them in an Ethereum-style virtual machine with zero-knowledge proofs, and committing succinct proofs back to Bitcoin so the rollup’s state can be reconstructed from the base chain. Rather than depending on external custody or multi-signature constructs for settlement, Citrea writes settlement and availability information directly to Bitcoin, aiming to let a full node reproduce its ledger without auxiliary services. The team positions the chain to host two core product families: collateralized borrowing against BTC and structured investment vehicles tailored to Bitcoin holders. To kickstart an ecosystem, Citrea has partnered with established DeFi infrastructure teams for lending rails and product assembly, and has flagged roughly thirty applications that plan Bitcoin-native integrations. Citrea’s stablecoin, ctUSD, will be issued through a fiat-onramp partner and backed by short-duration U.S. Treasury instruments and cash equivalents to meet emerging regulatory design expectations. The stack includes a bridge component that leverages BitVM techniques to introduce richer Bitcoin interactions without modifying the base protocol; that bridge element was deployed in 2025. Financial backing for the project includes a $14 million Series A led by Founders Fund and contributions from a slate of crypto investors, providing initial runway for engineering and go-to-market work. Technically, the platform trades some decentralization tradeoffs for EVM compatibility: developers gain familiar tooling while the settlement path still depends on Bitcoin miners and on-chain inscription costs. Operational risks remain centered on reserve transparency for ctUSD, the security of zkEVM proofs and bridge logic, and liquidity depth needed for BTC-backed credit markets. If adoption scales, the network could reroute capital flows so Bitcoin is used more actively within lending and institutional credit products, rather than sitting idle as a speculative store of value. However, regulatory scrutiny around dollar-pegged tokens and custodial arrangements may shape how quickly banks and large institutions engage. Success will hinge on audits, clear reserve reporting, robust market‑making for ctUSD, and seamless integration with custodians and exchanges. In short, Citrea lays a technical and commercial foundation to make Bitcoin a venue for native financial primitives, but its trajectory will depend on execution, liquidity, and the evolving policy environment.