Peter Thiel and Galaxy-backed Citrea launches mainnet to put idle bitcoin to work
Citrea, a Bitcoin-focused application platform backed by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Galaxy Ventures, launched its mainnet Tuesday, unveiling a push to make bitcoin more directly usable for lending, trading and U.S. dollar settlement.
Central to the debut is ctUSD, a native stablecoin issued by MoonPay and fully backed by short‑term U.S. Treasury bills and cash. Citrea positions ctUSD as compliant with the GENIUS Act framework and describes the token as a settlement and liquidity layer built to support institutional‑grade activity—natively anchored to Bitcoin rather than depending on intermediaries or wrapped BTC.
Built by Chainway Labs, Citrea is designed to transform “idle” bitcoin into productive on‑chain financial activity: BTC‑backed lending, institutional credit and faster dollar settlement through ctUSD. Co‑founder and CEO Orkun Kilic says the mainnet brings Bitcoin‑secured finance onchain, enabling use cases that go beyond passive holding.
Citrea has raised $16.7 million across two funding rounds and says more than 30 Bitcoin‑native applications are already ready to leverage the platform for expanded financial services. The project joins a growing field of Bitcoin‑centric initiatives—alongside layer‑2s like Botanix and Stacks—aiming to monetize long‑held BTC via lending, stablecoin issuance and other onchain products.
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