Bitlayer Labs Secures $5 Million in Funding and Launches $50 Million ‘Ready Player One’ Program

by Derek McKinney | Posted on

Bitlayer Labs Secures $5 Million in Funding and Launches $50 Million 'Ready Player One' Program

Leading Bitcoin Layer 2 solution based on BitVM, Bitlayer has announced the successful conclusion of a $5 million seed funding round.

Marking a significant milestone for the company, the funding round signals investors’ confidence in the project and propels it for further adoption.

Per the announcement, the funding round was led by Framework Ventures and ABCDE Capital, with significant contributions from industry giants such as StarkWare, OKX Ventures, Alliance DAO, and UTXO Management. Several angel investors, including Messari CEO Ryan Selkis and Hacken CEO Dyma, also lent their support, showcasing the industry’s confidence in Bitlayer’s vision.

The platform aims to revolutionize the Bitcoin ecosystem by offering Bitcoin-equivalent security and Turing completeness. Moreover, Bitlayer’s unique approach promises to build a more scalable and interconnected Bitcoin network. With this latest round of funding, Bitlayer intends to expand its team and accelerate global expansion efforts.

Notably, investors and ecosystem partners have expressed confidence in Bitlayer’s potential to drive innovation within the Bitcoin ecosystem. Roy Learner, partner at Framework Ventures, commented saying;

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 Unveils Its “Ready Player One” program as Mainnet Launch Approaches

As Bitlayer gears up for its mainnet launch on April 5th, the project is making plans for further development milestones in the pipeline. Alongside its funding success, Bitlayer has announced the launch of its ‘Ready Player One’ program to incentivize ecosystem development and attract top-tier projects. This open incentive program aims to distribute token rewards valued at over $50 million to protocols and teams deploying on the Bitlayer mainnet.

Following its design, Bitlayer commits to providing comprehensive ecosystem support for projects joining its platform, including potential investment, liquidity support, product development resources, mentorship opportunities, and collaboration within the Bitcoin community.

With resources ranging from potential investments and liquidity support to mentorship opportunities and ecosystem collaboration, Bitlayer is poised to foster a vibrant developer community and drive exponential growth within the Bitcoin Layer 2 space.

With the Bitcoin halving event on the horizon, the need for a robust Bitcoin ecosystem is more critical than ever. Bitlayer’s rigorous security auditing and exacting design position the protocol for success in the evolving landscape of Bitcoin DeFi.

Kevin He, co-founder of Bitlayer, commented on the project mission saying; “Bitlayer is dedicated to bringing super scalability into the Bitcoin ecosystem, with hundreds of millions of potential users as an addressable market,….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.”