Headline: Bitcoin ZK-rollup Citrea Goes Live — Brings Trading, Lending and Settlement Directly On-Chain Citrea has launched its mainnet, unveiling a Bitcoin-native application layer built to expand on-chain BTC use cases beyond long-term holding into active trading, lending and settlement. The launch, announced Jan. 27, positions Citrea as a layer-1 ZK-rollup focused on Bitcoin capital markets and liquidity that remains anchored to BTC. What Citrea delivers at launch - Native Bitcoin assets: Citrea debuts cBTC — a Bitcoin-backed token for use across decentralized applications — and ctUSD, a Bitcoin-native stablecoin designed to undergird on-chain liquidity and institutional use. - Security model: cBTC leverages zero-knowledge proofs together with BitVM-based verification to minimize reliance on custodians or multisig trust setups. Citrea says any fraudulent action can be challenged on the Bitcoin mainnet as long as at least one honest participant exists, which the team argues provides stronger security than earlier Bitcoin-bridge designs. - App ecosystem: More than 30 Bitcoin-secured applications are available at launch, including decentralized exchanges, liquidity tools, early-stage lending protocols and privacy-focused services. Additional apps and structured yield products are expected to appear in the coming weeks. - ctUSD details: The ctUSD stablecoin is issued by MoonPay and built on M0’s open stablecoin infrastructure. It’s available in the U.S. (excluding New York) and over 160 other countries, and was designed with institutional compliance considerations in mind. - User experience: Citrea also rolled out a dashboard for managing assets, tracking activity and exploring apps. Actions taken on live applications are recorded from day one, and the dashboard will expand as more tools go live. Why it matters Citrea aims to make Bitcoin a more active financial platform by enabling programmable, BTC-denominated financial activity while keeping liquidity native to Bitcoin. The project also says increased on-chain usage could strengthen miner incentives, framing the mainnet launch as an early step toward broader Bitcoin financialization rather than treating BTC solely as a store of value. Expect more applications and product releases in the coming weeks as Citrea builds out its Bitcoin-native ecosystem. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

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