Mainnet Launch: Unlocking Lending and Trading on Bitcoin
Citrea, a Bitcoin application platform backed by Founders Fund and Galaxy Ventures, today announced the launch of its mainnet, aiming to enable lending, trading, and other capital market activities directly on the Bitcoin network. Orkun Kilic, co-founder and CEO of Chainway Labs (the company behind Citrea), stated: "Bitcoin is the world's largest digital asset, yet its role in financial markets has been largely constrained. By bringing Bitcoin-secured financial applications on-chain, the Citrea mainnet enables capital to be deployed, managed, and settled directly within Bitcoin-native markets."
Alongside the mainnet debut, Citrea introduced ctUSD, a USD-pegged stablecoin issued by MoonPay and powered by M0. The stablecoin is fully backed by short-term U.S. Treasury bills and cash, and is designed to align with the forthcoming GENIUS Act, positioning it as a compliant settlement layer for Bitcoin-based financial activity.
Despite Bitcoin's roughly $1.3 trillion market capitalization, on-chain data suggests a significant portion of BTC remains economically idle. More than 61% of Bitcoin (worth an estimated $1.2 trillion) has not moved in over a year, underscoring the limited availability of native financial infrastructure on the network.
Core Products: BTC-backed Lending and Structured Products
At launch, the platform is focusing on two core product categories: BTC-backed lending and BTC structured products. The lending infrastructure was developed in collaboration with decentralized finance firms Morpho and UltraYield by Edge Capital. For structured products, Citrea is working with digital asset market maker Keyrock to offer BTC-denominated yield strategies that combine on-chain and off-chain components.
The company says more than 30 Bitcoin-native applications are already prepared to launch on the platform, spanning a range of institutional and retail financial use cases. "Citrea is addressing a huge market opportunity in helping to make Bitcoin truly programmable," said Bridget Harris, an associate at Founders Fund. "By leveraging Bitcoin's security while enabling application development, Citrea scales the Bitcoin economy as a whole." Galaxy Ventures general partner Will Nuelle added that bringing capital markets and stablecoin liquidity directly onto Bitcoin could deepen institutional engagement with the network.
Ecosystem Outlook and Miner Economics Impact
Beyond expanding Bitcoin's utility, this approach could also impact miner economics. As block subsidies decline over time, increased transaction-driven activity may help sustain miner incentives by anchoring real economic usage directly to the base layer. The mainnet and ctUSD are now live.
Citrea's launch marks a significant step for Bitcoin's evolution from a 'digital gold' to a programmable financial infrastructure. Whether it can truly activate trillions of dollars in dormant assets remains to be seen.