Citrea, a Bitcoin-focused application layer backed by Founders Fund and Galaxy Ventures, has announced the formation of the Citrea Foundation, an independent body designed to accelerate the growth and decentralization of Bitcoin’s programmable ecosystem.
The newly created foundation will act as a steward of the Citrea Network, supporting open-source development, strengthening community participation, and expanding access to Bitcoin-based applications centered on self-custody, privacy, and capital market functionality.
According to foundation director Orkun Kilic, who also co-founded Chainway Labs, the initiative is intended to guide research and ecosystem development toward a future where users interact with Bitcoin through secure custody models and more efficient financial systems. The foundation aims to provide a structured framework that allows developers and institutions to build on the network without compromising its decentralized nature.
A key focus will be funding cryptographic research and infrastructure designed to enable trustless bridges, removing the need for external collateral and reducing liquidity constraints. In addition to financial backing, the foundation plans to offer technical support and grants to projects that expand Bitcoin’s financial capabilities and encourage the development of capital-efficient applications.
Kilic will be joined on the foundation’s board by Murat Karademir, who serves as co-founder and COO of Chainway Labs, alongside an independent non-executive director based in the Cayman Islands. The board will oversee the alignment of the foundation’s activities with its mission of promoting decentralization while cultivating an active developer ecosystem.
Expanding Bitcoin’s Capital Market Role
The Citrea Foundation is expected to play a central role in the platform’s long-term decentralization strategy by coordinating research, funding development, and engaging the broader community. Observers view the move as a strategic step toward strengthening Bitcoin’s evolution into a programmable financial network capable of supporting complex capital market activity.
Citrea operates as an application layer designed to give both institutions and individual users access to Bitcoin-native capital markets while remaining aligned with the network’s core security principles.
Earlier this year, Citrea launched its mainnet along with ctUSD, a U.S. dollar–pegged stablecoin backed by short-term Treasuries, enabling lending, trading, and other financial activities directly on Bitcoin. The initiative aims to unlock a significant portion of the estimated $1.2 trillion worth of Bitcoin that has remained inactive for over a year by introducing compliant, on-chain financial infrastructure.
The platform has attracted backing from investors including Maven 11, Delphi Digital, Erik Voorhees, and Balaji Srinivasan, underscoring growing institutional confidence in Bitcoin’s expanding financial ecosystem.
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