According to an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, the Layer-2 Blockchain network Build on bitcoin (BOB), has secured $21 million over strategic funding rounds, including $9.5 million in its most recent round.
Castle Island is among the existing investors who have increased financial commitments. New strategic investors Anchorage Group and sats Ventures are also included.
Nic Carter, founder partner of Castle Island tells Cointelegraph the reasons why they decided to double their investment.
“We also continue to believe that Bitcoin will be the bedrock of DeFi, and we think BOB will be a marquee L2.”
Dominik Harz is the chief technology officer of BOB. He told Cointelegraph that the next big milestone for the company will be the launch of the BitVM Bridge into production. The bridge will be able to enable native Bitcoin.BTCBTC can also be used to facilitate BTC transfer to other chains.
BOB will launch BTC–staked Finality by 2025. Upgrades in the future are expected to enable BTC–secured Bridges for Solana and Ethereum smart-contract chains, as well as Sui.
“Users, institutions, apps and wallets everywhere will be able to access native BTC DeFi via BOB,” Harz said.
BOB recently launched its testnet with the support of partners such as Lombard Digital, Amber Digital, and RockawayX. Launch of the mainnet planned for fourth quarter, 2025.
Bridging Bitcoin to Ethereum
BOB utilizes the hybrid chain, which is an Ethereum-based ecosystem that combines Bitcoin’s stability and security with DeFi’s versatility.
BOB, a hybrid, is a Superchain that leverages the OP Stack, an Ethereum rollup. BOB, however, is also a Bitcoin network and integrates with Babylon to ensure Bitcoin finality through billions of dollars in staked BTC.
BOB locked up $212 Million in total worth on Thursday. DeFi TVL has $132.2 millions and 553,000 users.
Related: Build on Bitcoin adds ZK-proofs in upgrade toward decentralization
Native Bitcoin DeFi on its way
Previously, Bitcoin DeFi relied heavily on centralized institutions and wrapped Bitcoin Tokens like wBTC.wBTCTBTCTBTCHBTC) and Huobi BTC. The so-called “Bitcoin” tokens were representations of real BTC, where users deposited their genuine BTC with a centralised or multisignature custodian in exchange for a tokenised version that could be used onchain.
BOB’s BitVM2 eliminates the need for multisignature custody and allows BTC users to use their native BTC without wrapping.
BitVM2 has been co-authored with BOB cofounder Alexei Zamyatin. It allows for practical fraudproofs to be applied on Bitcoin. Users can enforce trust-minimized Bridging between Bitcoin L1 and the BOB.
BOB’s goal is to leverage this technology to move Bitcoin towards decentralized finance in the style of Ethereum, so that Bitcoin users can engage with DeFi, without having to lose control over their assets. The network is designed to maintain Bitcoin’s privacy while also allowing interaction with Ethereum based DeFi protocols.
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Source: cointelegraph.com
