Bitcoin ZK-rollup takes a key step forward: Citrea mainnet launches, on-chain lending and trading officially implemented

January 28 News, the Bitcoin ZK-rollup project Citrea has officially launched on the mainnet, introducing a native application layer for on-chain trading, lending, and settlement within the Bitcoin ecosystem. This development is seen as a significant milestone in Bitcoin’s evolution from a “store of value” to “on-chain financial infrastructure.”

Citrea announced its mainnet launch on January 27, with the core goal of directly building programmable applications on top of Bitcoin’s security model, rather than relying on external blockchains for settlement. The network is positioned as a native application layer for Bitcoin, emphasizing that liquidity and security are ultimately anchored in the Bitcoin mainnet, while expanding the boundaries of on-chain financial activities.

In the initial phase of the mainnet launch, Citrea introduced two core assets: cBTC and ctUSD. cBTC is an on-chain asset supported by Bitcoin, usable across various decentralized applications, utilizing ZK proofs combined with the BitVM verification mechanism to reduce reliance on custodians or multi-signature trust from an architectural perspective. As long as there is at least one honest participant in the system, potential fraudulent behavior can be challenged on the Bitcoin mainnet, thereby enhancing overall security.

ctUSD is the native stablecoin within the Citrea ecosystem, primarily used to support on-chain trading and settlement liquidity. This stablecoin is built on open stablecoin infrastructure, covering the United States (excluding New York State) and over 160 countries and regions worldwide, providing services to a broader user base within a compliant framework.

At the application layer, when the Citrea mainnet launched, over 30 applications directly protected by Bitcoin security went live, including decentralized trading, liquidity tools, early-stage lending, and privacy-related services. The project team stated that in the coming weeks, more applications and structured yield products will continue to be introduced.

Meanwhile, Citrea has launched a unified user dashboard for asset management, on-chain activity tracking, and application exploration. The project team indicated that its long-term goal is to promote growth in Bitcoin-denominated financial activities and to create new economic incentives for miners by increasing network usage.