Bitlayer, a Bitcoin layer-2 network, has raised a total of $16 million, including $11 million in its Series A funding round at a $300 million valuation, according to a July 23 statement shared with CryptoSlate.
Franklin Templeton, a prominent investment management firm and issuer of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, and ABCDE led the Series A funding round.
Bitlayer stated:
“Franklin Templeton’s participation marks a notable milestone as Bitlayer becomes the first Bitcoin Layer 2 infrastructure project to secure strategic investment from an ETF-licensed institution.”
Its other investors include Framework Ventures, Stake Capital Group, WAGMI Ventures, Skyland Ventures, Flow Traders, GSR Ventures, FalconX, and others.
Eyes BitVM expansion
Bitlayer plans to use the funding for strategic and capital resources to support its expansion. The firm is developing a Bitcoin Layer 2 network based on the Bitcoin Virtual Machine (BitVM) system, which ensures Bitcoin-equivalent security.
Bitlayer launched its mainnet V1 in April and claims its ecosystem has over 200 projects. It is currently ranked as the top Bitcoin scaling project with over $550 million in total value locked, according to DeFiLlama data.
Following the launch of Mainnet-V1, the Bitlayer team is working on Mainnet-V2, a Bitcoin-native rollup in which the Layer 2 state transition is secured by a Bitcoin-friendly proof system that combines ZK and fraud proofs.
Kevin He, Bitlayer Co-Founder, stated that Bitcoin has a long way to go from digital gold to mass adoption. He emphasized the need to address existing issues like technology and public perception.
He added:
“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.”
Meanwhile, Bitlayer’s growing success reflects the evolution of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Developments like Ordinals have transformed the blockchain network, shifting its ecosystem from a simple transactional currency to a platform supporting diverse digital assets.
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