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August 7, 2025 – BOB (Build on Bitcoin), the pioneering hybrid Layer-2 solution combining Bitcoin’s robust security with Ethereum’s vibrant DeFi innovation, today announced the successful completion of a series of strategic funding rounds since December 2024, bringing its total capital raised to an impressive $21 million. This significant financial injection will accelerate BOB’s mission to place Bitcoin at the heart of decentralized finance, unlocking new use cases and tapping into trillions in latent liquidity.
The latest strategic round, which contributed $9.5 million to the total, saw strong recommitment from existing investors and welcomed new strategic partners. Multi-round investors, demonstrating continued confidence in BOB’s progress, include Castle Island Ventures (which led BOB's original $10 million seed round), Ledger Cathay Capital, RockawayX, Asymmetric, Hypersphere, IOSG Ventures, Bankless Ventures, Sigil/Zeeprime, CMS, and Daedalus. New strategic investments in this latest round come from Amber Group, Sats Ventures, and Nathan McCauley, CEO of Anchorage Digital. This follows an earlier $1.6 million angel investor round, which was led by Ledger Cathay Fund and included prominent angel investors from leading entities such as BlackRock, Rarible, Ordinals, Aave, CurveFinance, TheTNetwork, MagicEden, MechanismCap, Injective, Vessel Capital, Babylon Chain, and Centrifuge, among others.
"The fact that we continue to attract new partners, and so many of our original investors have doubled down, speaks volumes to the work our team has done to define Bitcoin’s central role in DeFi," said Alexei Zamyatin, BOB Co-Founder and BitVM Researcher. "With the string of recent developments and tier 1 partners choosing BOB to support their Bitcoin strategies, we’re demonstrating what’s possible with BOB’s unique Hybrid model, bringing together the strengths of Bitcoin and Ethereum to put Bitcoin at the heart of DeFi.”
BOB’s innovative "Hybrid Chain" model is designed to be the safest and easiest way for users to access yield on their Bitcoin. It achieves this by securing all applications, assets, and transactions with billions of dollars of staked BTC, while providing a standard OP Stack EVM execution layer for seamless developer experience. This unique architecture enables trustless BTC deposits powered by cutting-edge BitVM and ZK-proofs, and facilitates multi-chain Bitcoin yield through Bitcoin intents, vaults, and BTC-secured bridges.
Nic Carter, Founding Partner at Castle Island Ventures, emphasized the strategic importance of BOB's approach: “We believe in the enormous potential of Bitcoin DeFi and see BitVM as the best path forward for trustless BTC deposits and withdrawals. BOB is the only Layer 2 implementing both BitVM for trustless deposits and Bitcoin finality via staked Bitcoin for Bitcoin-secured DeFi transactions. We’re excited to increase our investment and support BOB’s mission to build the gateway to Bitcoin DeFi.”
A significant portion of the $1.6 million angel round was allocated to a dedicated BOB incubator, aimed at bootstrapping new and innovative startups in the BTC infrastructure and BOB dapp space. This initiative bridges the gap between Bitcoin's global adoption and Ethereum's innovation powerhouse, fostering a thriving ecosystem.
Marguerite de Tavernost, an investor at the Ledger Cathay Fund, highlighted BOB's potential: “Ledger Cathay Fund is very excited to support BOB, which has the power to unleash Bitcoin’s programmability while maintaining its robust security. By combining the best of Bitcoin with the innovation capabilities of Ethereum, Bitcoin Layer-2s like BOB unlock unprecedented Bitcoin scalability. We are extremely proud to be supporting Alexei and his team. They have demonstrated impressive execution capabilities by securing very large TVL volumes early on as well as various integrations for facilitating DeFi applications for Bitcoin.”
BOB has already achieved significant milestones, including the recent launch of native Bitcoin DeFi on its testnet with support from leading institutions and DeFi protocols such as Lombard, Amber Group, and RockawayX. This development, powered by BOB’s BitVM bridge, will make native BTC, not wrapped representations, available to its extensive Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem upon mainnet launch. Furthermore, BOB became the first hybrid ZK rollup, dramatically reducing costs and increasing efficiency for optimistic rollups by leveraging Zero-Knowledge technology for fraud disputes. BOB’s integration with Fireblocks also significantly enhances institutional access to Bitcoin DeFi, combining Fireblocks’ secure wallet infrastructure with BOB’s network.
MacLane Wilkison from Threshold added, "By combining the security of Bitcoin with the application base of the EVM, BOB has quickly become one of the largest Bitcoin L2s by TVL on the back of a thriving DeFi ecosystem. I'm excited to see their momentum continue as users and developers increasingly choose to build on Bitcoin.”
The successful fundraising underscores the growing optimism for BOB’s mission to unlock Bitcoin’s full potential, representing a $750 billion latent capital opportunity and a 100x growth opportunity for Bitcoin DeFi. BOB is actively progressing through its development phases, from bootstrapping as an optimistic ETH roll-up (Phase 1, completed) to adding Bitcoin security & trust-minimized BitVM bridges (Phase 2, rolling out), and researching optimistic Bitcoin rollups via BitVM (Phase 3) and ZK-rollups (Phase 4).
About BOB (Build on Bitcoin):
BOB is the gateway to Bitcoin DeFi, a hybrid Layer-2 solution that merges Bitcoin’s unparalleled security with Ethereum’s dynamic DeFi ecosystem. By enabling trustless BTC deposits, multi-chain Bitcoin yield, and a full EVM-compatible environment, BOB empowers developers and users to build and access innovative decentralized applications directly on Bitcoin. BOB is a member of the Superchain Eco and powered by OP Stack.
About Castle Island Ventures:
Castle Island Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on investing in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. They are known for their deep expertise and strategic investments in foundational technologies.About Ledger Cathay Fund:
Ledger Cathay Fund is the early-stage venture fund of Ledger, focused on supporting innovative projects at the intersection of blockchain technology and digital assets.Compiled by CMO Intern team
