Bitlayer Raises 11M USD in Series A Round Led by Franklin Templeton, ABCDE
Bitlayer Labs, the first Bitcoin Layer 2 based on the BitVM paradigm, today announced the successful completion of its $11 million Series A funding round, bringing its total raised to $16 million. The round is led by industry leaders Franklin Templeton and ABCDE, providing powerful strategic and capital resources that will pave the way for Bitlayer’s expansion. ABCDE, alongside Framework Ventures, led Bitlayer’s seed round funding. The firms continue their support here in Bitlayer’s Series A Round.
The funding round was also marked by participation from notable investors including Stake Capital Group, WAGMI Ventures, Skyland Ventures, Flow Traders, GSR Ventures, FalconX, Metalpha, 280 Capital, Presto Labs, Caladan and many other value adding investors. Noteworthy angels in the round include DOMO, the creator of BRC20, Brian Kang, cofounder of FactBlock KBW, and many others.
The funds raised from this round will be leveraged to bolster the company’s global expansion plan, attract more developers and protocols deployed on Bitlayer, and map out the Bitlayer protocol.
Franklin Templeton’s investment in Bitlayer marks a significant milestone. It is the first Bitcoin Layer 2 infrastructure project to receive strategic investment from an ETF-licensed institution. This partnership highlights the growing interest and momentum behind Bitlayer’s innovative solutions for technical challenges within the Bitcoin ecosystem, indicating a larger trend of institutional recognition and support for blockchain technologies.
“It’s a tremendous honor to collaborate with such valuable and world-class funds that can accelerate the development of Bitlayer’s ecosystem,” said Charlie Hu, co-founder of Bitlayer Labs. “This Series A funding from some of the most respected entities in the blockchain space validates our mission to make breakthroughs in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Our goals include achieving Bitcoin finality, establishing a bitcoin security-equivalent native Layer 2, and making history in the Bitcoin world.”
Investor Comments:
“After leading the previous round, we are thrilled to continue co-leading Bitlayer in this Series A round. Bitlayer stands out in the field of Bitcoin Layer 2s, accumulating more than $500 million TVL and 300 ecological projects to create the strongest Bitcoin Layer 2 ecosystem. As it realizes native verification on Bitcoin, Bitlayer will become the first native Bitcoin Layer 2, a seminal moment in the history of Bitcoin.” — BMAN, Managing Partner of ABCDE Capital.
“We believe that Bitlayer’s unique approach and technology has the potential to unlock new use cases and opportunities for Bitcoin, and we look forward to exploring collaboration opportunities with our Bitcoin-focused financial products. This investment underscores our commitment to supporting innovation in the digital asset space.” — Kevin Farrelly, Managing Principal of Franklin Templeton Digital Assets.
Building the Future of Bitcoin
Founded in November 2023, Bitlayer quickly emerged as a maverick in the Bitcoin Layer 2 space with an ambitious objective: to become the computation layer for Bitcoin.
“Bitcoin still has a long way to go from digital gold to mass adoption, and we need to address existing issues such as technology and the shift in public perception,” said Kevin He, Bitlayer Co-Founder. “At Bitlayer, we’re laser-focused on solving the Bitcoin scalability challenge. We’ve built a significant milestone for the future of Bitcoin Layer 2s. The cost and performance advantages of Bitlayer are significant, and we’re unlocking a huge amount of potential value for Bitcoin.”
Bitlayer’s ongoing efforts have been focused on developer deployment and construction, as well as user acquisition. Within a few months of launching, the Bitlayer team delivered on several groundbreaking milestones, including the Bitlayer technical whitepaper, the launch of a developer incentive airdrop program, Mainnet-V1, the Dapp leaderboard competition, and Bitlayer’s innovative TVL-driving Mining Gala events.
What’s Next for Bitlayer
The Bitcoin ecosystem has long grappled with scaling while maintaining the core principles of security and decentralization. Existing solutions often compromise on one aspect to achieve the other, leaving a gap in the market for a solution that can offer both.
By providing a faster and more cost-effective trading experience, Bitlayer aims to accelerate the application of Bitcoin in the DeFi sector and pave the way for its mass adoption.
Bitlayer’s Series A funds are earmarked for its ecosystem expansion, including supporting the number of native Web3 protocols built within the ecosystem. After Mainnet-V1 launch on April 15th, Bitlayer’s development team continues work on building Mainnet-V2, a Bitcoin-native rollup in which Layer 2 state transition is guarded by a Bitcoin-friendly proof system that combines both ZK and fraud proofs.
With strong support from its strategic investors and ecosystem partners, Bitlayer is fueling Bitcoin’s massive growth and adoption, and vies to become Bitcoin’s leading Layer 2 infrastructure.
About Franklin Templeton Digital Assets
Franklin Templeton Digital Assets is a part of Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE:BEN], a global investment management organization with subsidiaries operating as Franklin Templeton and serving clients in over 150 countries. Franklin Templeton Digital Assets has been active in the digital asset ecosystem since 2018, building blockchain-based technology solutions, developing a range of investment strategies, and running node validators.
About ABCDE
ABCDE is a VC focused on leading investments in top crypto builders. It was co-founded by Huobi cofounder Dylan Du and former internet and crypto entrepreneur BMAN, who have been in the crypto industry for over 10 years. The co-founders of ABCDE have built multi-billion dollar companies in the crypto industry from the ground up, including listed companies(1611.HK), exchanges(Huobi), SAAS companies(ChainUP.com), media(CoinTime.com), and developers platforms(BeWater.xyz).
About Bitlayer
Bitlayer is the first Bitcoin Layer 2 solution based on the BitVM paradigm. Bitlayer’s core objective is to address the trade-off between security (trustlessness) and Turing completeness in BTC Layer 2 through cryptographic innovations and blockchain protocol engineering.
Bitlayer is committed to becoming the computation layer for Bitcoin, aiming to introduce ultra-scalability to Bitcoin while inheriting its security, providing users with a high-throughput, low-cost transaction experience.
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