BitVM-Based Bitlayer, a Leading Bitcoin L2, Nets $5M in Funding, Unveils $50M ‘Ready Player One’ Program

Singapore,
Singapore,
April
3rd,
2024,
Chainwire

Bitlayer
Labs,
the
first
Bitcoin
Layer
2
solution
based
on
BitVM,
announced
a
seed
round
of
$5M
led
by
Framework
Ventures
and
ABCDE
Capital,
participation
by
StarkWare,
OKX
Ventures,
Alliance
DAO,
UTXO
Management,
Asymmetric
Capital
and
many
more.
The
announcement
comes
as
Bitlayer
prepares
the
launch
of
its
open-incentive
program
Ready
Player
One,
inviting
developers
worldwide
to
augment,
enhance,
and
build
on
the
protocol.

Bitlayer
Labs,
the
developer
of
Bitcoin
Layer
2
protocol

Bitlayer,
announced
today
the
close
of
a
$5
million
seed
funding
round
at
an
$80
million
valuation,
driving
a
vision
to
become
the
computation
layer
of
Bitcoin.

Investors
&
Ecosystem
Partners

Blockchain-based
venture
firms
Framework
Ventures
and
ABCDE
Capital
led
the
round,
with
participation
from
StarkWare,
OKX
Ventures,
Alliance
DAO,
UTXO
Management,
Asymmetric
Capital,
Kenetic
Capital,
Kestrel,
Global
Coin
Research,
Pivot
Global,
and
Web3Port.
Many
other
incredible
investors
added
value
to
the
seed
round.

Prominent
angel
investors
including
Messari
CEO
Ryan
Selkis,
Messari
co-founder
Dan
McArdle,
Asymmetric
Capital
founder
Dan
Held,
Hacken
CEO
Dyma,
Sky
Mavis
CEO
Trung
and
CTO
Andy,
and
Kyber
Network
founder
Loi
Luu,
among
others,
joined
in
capitalizing
the
round.

Bitlayer’s
seed
round
was
delivered
soaring
value-add
support
from
ecosystem
partners
including
Hacken,
AWS
Cloud,
Ankr,
Polyhedra,
Babylon,
Particle
Network,
Meson,
Nubit,
BitSmiley,
TokenPocket,
Xverse,
Flash
Protocol,
Umoja.xyz,
RunesTerminal,
and
more.

The
Bitlayer
Network

Bitlayer
is
the
first
Bitcoin
Layer
2
network
based
on
BitVM,
offering
Bitcoin-equivalent
security
and
Turing
completeness.
The
protocol
aims
to
build
a
more
scalable
and
interconnected
Bitcoin
ecosystem.

The
securing
of
new
capital
pushes
Bitlayer’s
lead
in
paving
the
way
for
more
Bitcoin
Layer
2
use
cases,
a
race
that
will
propel
Bitcoin
to
prevail
over
other
blockchains
in
size,
scalability,
and
security.
The
fund
will
also
enable
Bitlayer
to
grow
its
team
by
hiring
across
business
development
and
engineering
faculties
to
support
global
expansion
efforts.

Investment
firms
are
increasingly
optimistic
about
the
Bitcoin
ecosystem
as
Bitlayer
is
rapidly
gaining
prominence,
capturing
the
industry’s
attention.

Investor
Remarks

Roy
Learner,
partner
at
Framework
Ventures,
spoke
on
the
augmentation
of
Bitlayer
with
BitVM:
“We
are
excited
to
back
Bitlayer
as
they
launch
the
first
Bitcoin
Layer
2
network
based
on
BitVM.
Looking
at
the
trade-off
space,
BitVM
struck
us
as
the
most
practical
approach
to
bring
scalability
and
expressiveness
into
the
BTC
ecosystem
without
sacrificing
security.
With
over
$1T
of
global
wealth
looking
to
productively
utilize
their
BTC,
Bitlayer
opens
up
the
design
space
to
introduce
novel
DeFi
use
cases
and
applications.
Led
by
a
team
of
OGs,
we’ve
been
impressed
by
Kevin
and
Charlie’s
blend
of
deep
technical
background
and
rich
crypto
experience
and
are
excited
to
partner
with
them
as
they
deliver
on
their
vision
of
making
Bitcoin
a
more
productive
asset.” 

Qiao
Wang,
co-founder
of
Alliance
DAO,
emphasized
the
future
of
Bitlayer
and
Bitcoin
L2s
in
the
emerging
era:
“I
spent
the
vast
majority
of
my
intellectual,
social,
and
financial
capital
in
the
Ethereum
ecosystem
in
the
last
decade,
but
deep
down
I’ve
always
been
a
Bitcoiner.
The
possibility
to
enhance
Bitcoin’s
expressiveness
and
scalability
via
L2s
such
as
Bitlayer
is
the
most
exciting
moment
in
the
history
of
Bitcoin.
That
is
because
there’s
over
$1T
of
wealth
stored
on
Bitcoin,
and
the
holders
would
want
to
do
something
productive
with
it.
Greater
expressiveness
and
scalability
enable
this.
Bitlayer
is
one
of
the
most
experienced,
passionate,
and
technically
capable
teams
to
tackle
this
problem.”

In
the
midst
of
building
Bitlayer,
co-founder
Charlie
Hu
shared
his
thoughts
on
the
protocol’s
milestone: “This
support
signifies
investors’
and
builders’
trust
in
Bitlayer
and
the
team,
and
demonstrates
a
robust
backing
for
the
Bitcoin
ecosystem
and
the
future
of
Bitcoin
DeFi
at
large.” 

Bitlayer
ventures
into
the
future
of
Bitcoin
with
newly
supplied
capital,
anticipating
a
rush
of
development
activity
and
investor
interest
in
the
Bitcoin
Layer
2
space.

“Bitlayer
is
dedicated
to
bringing
super
scalability
into
the
Bitcoin
ecosystem,
with
hundreds
of
millions
of
potential
users
as
an
addressable
market,”
said
Kevin
He,
co-founder
of
Bitlayer.
“We’ve
created
the
best,
easiest-to-use
scalability
product
in
order
to
give
users
better
fee
rates
and
faster
actions,
all
based
on
Bitcoin’s
security
foundation.”

With
the
approach
of
the
Bitcoin
halving
event,
the
need
for
a
robust
Bitcoin
ecosystem
becomes
more
important
than
ever.
Bitlayer’s
exacting
design
and
rigorous
security
auditing
in
preparation
for
public
mainnet
launch
primes
the
protocol
for
a
flourishing
builder
ecosystem.
Mainnet
launches
on
April
5th,
with
more
milestones
arriving
soon
on
the
project’s
development
pipeline.

Ready
Player
One–
Ecosystem
Incentive
Program

To
accelerate
ecosystem
development
and
incentivize
projects
to
deploy
on
the
Bitlayer
mainnet,
Bitlayer
is
launching
a
series
of
ecosystem
incentive
programs–
starting
with
the
first
event,
Ready
Player
One.

The
campaign
is
an
open
incentive
program
designed
to
distribute
token
rewards
valued
at
over
$50M
to
protocols
and
teams
that
deploy
to
the
Bitlayer
mainnet
and
demonstrate
exceptional
performance.
Bitlayer’s
growth
is
accelerating,
urging
strong
projects
to
join
its
ecosystem
to
grow
the
protocol
in
exponential
ways.

Bitlayer
commits
to
providing
comprehensive
ecosystem
support
for
all
projects,
offering
the
following
resources
to
builders:

• Potential
  investment
  from
  the
  foundation
  and
  institutions
• Initial
  liquidity
  support
• Comprehensive
  product
  development
  resources
• Mentorship
  and
  pitch
  opportunities
  from
  top-tier
  incubators
• Support
  from
  the
  Bitcoin
  community
  and
  OGs
• Ecosystem
  collaboration
  and
  co-creation

Users
can
find
the
full
article

here
for
more
information.

About
Bitlayer

Bitlayer
is
the
first
Bitcoin
Layer
2
network
based
on
BitVM,
offering
Bitcoin-equivalent
security
and
Turing-completeness.
Bitlayer
is
committed
to
becoming
the
computation
layer
for
Bitcoin.
It
introduces
ultra-scalability
and
inherits
Bitcoin’s
L1
security,
providing
users
with
high
throughput
and
a
low-cost
transaction
experience.

More
on
Bitlayer:

Website
|

Twitter
|

Discord
|

Medium
|

Github

Contact

Digital
Marketing
Manager
Sky
Harris
Bitlayer
[email protected]