Bitlayer didn’t just appear overnight—it was born from the vision of two seasoned builders, Charlie Hu and Kevin He, who believed Bitcoin could be more than just digital gold. Both came with years of experience from leading projects like Polygon, Polkadot, and Huobi, and set out to give Bitcoin the missing piece: a secure, scalable smart contract layer.

Their idea quickly gained momentum. In April 2024, #Bitlayer raised $5M in seed funding from big-name backers like Framework Ventures, StarkWare, and ABCDE Capital, followed by an $11M Series A in July led by Franklin Templeton, and an extra $9M round in October headed by Polychain Capital. This strong investor confidence powered their “Ready Player One” program—inviting developers worldwide to build the next wave of Bitcoin applications.

By the end of the year, #Bitlayer had already made its mark: the mainnet V1 launch surged past $850M in total value locked (TVL) and onboarded 200+ decentralized apps (dApps). On top of that, they introduced the first trust-minimized BitVM Bridge, creating a secure gateway to move Bitcoin across different ecosystems.

To further strengthen their foundation, Bitlayer partnered with Bitcoin mining giants Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool—ensuring their bridge transactions are backed at the very core of Bitcoin’s network.

Behind the scenes, the team isn’t just small and scrappy—they’re veterans who’ve built EVM chains, zk-rollups, and MPC self-custody platforms, scaling ecosystems across 20+ countries and billions in value.

🌍 @BitlayerLabs : 👇

Founders: Charlie Hu & Kevin He

Funding: $25M+ from world-class investors

Milestones: $850M TVL, 200+ dApps, first BitVM Bridge

Allies: Antpool, F2Pool, SpiderPool

Team DNA: Experts in blockchain scaling, with global reach

Bitlayer’s story is one of turning Bitcoin’s limitations into opportunities building the tools that bring speed, apps, and true financial utility to the world’s most trusted blockchain.