BOB, the Gateway to Bitcoin DeFi which combines Bitcoin’s security with Ethereum’s DeFi innovation, has announced the completion of a series of strategic funding rounds since December 2024, bringing its total raised to $21 million. BOB’s development of its hybrid chain will be accelerated by these funding rounds, placing Bitcoin at the heart of DeFi to unlock new use cases and trillions in liquidity.
Demonstrating confidence in BOB’s recent progress, many of BOB’s existing investors have ramped up their commitment in the recent $9.5M strategic round. These multi-round investors include Castle Island Ventures, which led the original $10M seed round, as well as Ledger, RockawayX, Asymmetric, IOSG Ventures, UTXO Management, Daedalus, CMS, Bankless Ventures, Hypersphere, Alliance, and Sigil/Zeeprime. BOB has also welcomed new strategic investments from Anchorage, Amber Group, and Sats Ventures, joining the broader group of backers in this latest strategic round – bolstered by an earlier $1.6M angel investor round.
The success and sum of this funding amount is a testament to the growing optimism and belief in BOB’s mission to unlock Bitcoin’s full potential, representing a $750 billion latent capital opportunity and a 100x growth opportunity for Bitcoin DeFi.
Alexei Zamyatin, BOB Co-Founder and BitVM Core Contributor, said: “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. 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 redefine Bitcoin’s role in DeFi.”
As the Gateway to Bitcoin DeFi, BOB intends to be the easiest and safest place to earn with your Bitcoin. Its Hybrid Chain model combines the strengths of the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks, which means all apps, assets and transactions are secured by billions of dollars of staked BTC. Additionally, BOB will operate BTC-secured bridges to Ethereum and other chains, providing a gateway to earn yield on Bitcoin across multiple chains.
Nic Carter, Founding Partner at Castle Island Ventures, said: “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.”
Recently, BOB launched native Bitcoin DeFi on its testnet with the support of leading institutions and DeFi protocols including Lombard, Amber Digital and RockawayX. This development, powered by BOB’s BitVM bridge, will make native BTC, not wrapped representations, available to their extensive Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem once it goes live on mainnet.
Alongside this, BOB also became the first hybrid ZK rollup, dramatically reducing cost and increasing efficiency for optimistic rollups by leveraging Zero-Knowledge technology for fraud disputes. Additionally, BOB’s integration with Fireblocks enhances institutional access to Bitcoin DeFi by combining Fireblocks’ secure wallet infrastructure with BOB’s network.
About BOB
BOB is the Gateway to Bitcoin DeFi, the easiest and safest way to earn with your Bitcoin. BOB’s unique hybrid chain model combines the strengths of Bitcoin and Ethereum – with hybrid ZK proofs and billions of dollars of staked Bitcoin securing all apps, assets and transactions in BOB’s tier 1 DeFi ecosystem. Powered by BitVM, users can access native BTC on BOB, without the need for custodians or wrapped tokens. Through Bitcoin intents, users can also unlock multi-chain Bitcoin yield and swap BTC on any chain with just 1 click. By integrating BOB, wallets, apps and institutions can access Bitcoin DeFi anywhere, with Bitcoin secured bridges delivering native BTC to connected chains. BOB is backed by leading investors such as Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Ledger Cathay Ventures, and IOSG.