What Alpen Labs does

Alpen Labs is a Bitcoin financial infrastructure company building an EVM-compatible ZK rollup that settles transactions directly on Bitcoin, enabling BTC holders to borrow, earn interest, and transact in dollars without giving up custody or relying on wrapped tokens. The company is incorporated in the United States (Brooklyn, NY) and operates a globally distributed team of 11-50 employees, having raised approximately $20.6 million across disclosed funding events as of early 2026.

The core technical stack comprises a ZK rollup with optimistic bridge architecture, where Bitcoin serves as the source of truth for state commitments and proof of valid state transitions. The proprietary Glock primitive, a garbled-circuit-based lock invented by Founding Cryptographer Liam Eagen, achieves up to 1000x reduction in onchain verification costs versus BitVM, enabling a 1-of-N trust-minimized Bitcoin bridge that requires only a single honest participant for safety and liveness. Supporting products include the Bitcoin Dollar (BTD), a Bitcoin-backed and Bitcoin-settled dollar stablecoin built with Liquity Protocol; the Strata vision for neutral Bitcoin layer infrastructure; and a BTC credit markets architecture leveraging Morpho V2's orderbook-based lending for standardized loan claims. Developer infrastructure encompasses public testnets (Shanghai August 2025, Prague December 2025), block explorer, checkpoint explorer, public RPC endpoints, ERC-4337 bundler support, full node software, CLI tools, and a testnet faucet.

Alpen Labs operates a developer-led, community-driven go-to-market with no consumer-facing sales motion; value flows through platform builders (DeFi protocols, wallets, custodians, exchanges, lending providers) who embed Alpen infrastructure. Pricing is transaction-based (testnet withdrawal fee of 0.01 BTC, fixed deposit denomination of 10 BTC) with mainnet pricing not yet disclosed. Revenue figures are not publicly disclosed and the company is pre-revenue, with mainnet v1 contracts under active audit and Starknet Foundation grant-funded bridge development underway. Strategic ecosystem partners include Anchorage Digital, Chaos Labs, LayerZero, Liquity, Paxos, Valantis, Morpho Labs, Succinct, and the Starknet Foundation.

Name

Alpen Labs

Legal name

Alpen Labs

Website

https://www.alpenlabs.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Alpen Labs builds an EVM-compatible ZK rollup secured by Bitcoin, enabling BTC holders to borrow, earn interest, and transact in dollars without custodians or wrapped tokens, serving DeFi protocols, wallets, custodians, and exchanges through developer infrastructure and protocol integrations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Bitcoin Layer-2 Infrastructure

NAICS

Securities and Commodity Exchanges (52321)

SIC

Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200), Finance Services (6199)

akta.pro primary industry

Account Abstraction & Smart Wallet Tooling (AA SDKs, paymasters, session keys) (FSAPABAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Cross-Chain DEXs & Bridge-Integrated Trading (FSADABAD), Enterprise Payments & Tokenized Money (stablecoins, tokenized deposits, CBDC rails) (FSAPAIAJ), Smart Contract Wallets / Account Abstraction (MPC/AA, social recovery, paymasters) (FSAPACAB)

Keywords

• Bitcoin Layer-2 Infrastructure
• ZK Rollup Platform
• Bitcoin DeFi Protocol
• Crypto Developer Tools
• Bitcoin Bridging

Headquarters

HQ city

Brooklyn

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Protocol Infrastructure Revenue: Alpen operates as infrastructure for Bitcoin DeFi. Revenue generation mechanisms are not explicitly disclosed but the protocol enables fee-generating activities including bridge deposits/withdrawals, transaction fees on the ZK rollup, and potential protocol fees from BTC credit markets.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Alpen Labs operates Alpen, an EVM-compatible ZK rollup on Bitcoin that enables users to borrow, earn interest, and transact in dollars using their Bitcoin without wrapped tokens or custodians. The platform features a 1-of-N trust-minimized Bitcoin bridge, the Glock cryptographic primitive for verification, the Bitcoin Dollar (BTD) stablecoin, and BTC credit market architecture, along with developer tooling such as testnet environments, block explorers, RPC endpoints, and CLI tools.

Product overview

Alpen Labs offers a unified Bitcoin financial system built as an EVM-compatible ZK rollup with optimistic bridge architecture. The core product, Alpen, enables Bitcoin holders to borrow, earn interest, and spend in dollars directly on Bitcoin without wrapped tokens or custodians. Key products include the Bitcoin Dollar (BTD) stablecoin, Glock cryptographic verification primitive, and the BTC Credit Markets architecture. Developer infrastructure includes public testnet environments (Shanghai and Prague), block explorer, checkpoint explorer, RPC endpoints, ERC-4337 bundler, full node software, CLI tools, and faucet. The Strata vision encompasses the broader goal of enabling specialized Bitcoin layers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Bitcoin Dollar (BTD): A Bitcoin-backed and Bitcoin-settled dollar stablecoin built with Liquity Protocol, offering over-collateralized, immutable, decentralized dollar minting against BTC collateral.
• Glock
• Strata
• Alpen (Platform)

Products and services

• Alpen Platform
• Bitcoin Dollar (BTD)
• Glock
• BTC Credit Markets
• Alpen Testnet
• Alpen RPC & Bundler
• Alpen Block Explorer Blockchain explorer built on Blockscout for inspecting and analyzing Alpen blocks, transactions, contracts, assets, and API documentation.
• Alpen Full Node Docker-based full node software allowing anyone to run an Alpen full node. Requires 64-bit processor (2c4t+), 8GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, 20 Mbps network.

Quantifiable outcome

• Up to 1000x reduction in onchain costs for verifying offchain computation on Bitcoin using Glock
• +2 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Starknet FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 October 2025Starknet Foundation awarded a grant to Alpen Labs to develop a trust-minimized Bitcoin bridge using Glock technology, enabling Bitcoin to be used directly in DeFi applications on Starknet. The initiative enhances security and reduces verification costs compared to previous models like BitVM.
• StarknetcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 October 2025Starknet partnered with Alpen Labs to develop a secure Bitcoin-DeFi bridge. The project uses a novel security model that avoids traditional vulnerabilities and enhances Bitcoin's DeFi capabilities on Starknet.
• Succinct (Prover Network)coreTechnology or IntegrationSuccinct's Prover Network generates ZK proofs for Alpen's ZK rollup, enabling validity proofs for batch state transitions.
• Morpho LabscoreTechnology or IntegrationAlpen collaborated with Morpho on BTC credit market architecture research. Morpho V2's orderbook-based lending architecture enables fixed-maturity, market-priced BTC loan claims that can be traded and financed on Alpen.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Bitlayer: Bitlayer is a Bitcoin Layer 2 using BitVM-based optimistic verification for trust-minimized BTC bridging. It directly competes with Alpen in the Bitcoin L2 space targeting EVM-compatible DeFi.
• Stacks: Stacks is a long-standing Bitcoin L2 enabling smart contracts and DeFi on Bitcoin via its Proof of Transfer consensus. It is comparable as a Bitcoin programmability layer with a deployed ecosystem and active developer community.
• Citrea: Citrea is a Bitcoin ZK rollup with EVM compatibility that settles on Bitcoin. It is the closest direct competitor to Alpen, pursuing the same vision of programmable Bitcoin finance through validity proofs and direct Bitcoin settlement.
• Botanix Labs: Botanix is an EVM-equivalent Bitcoin L2 using a spiderchain architecture for two-way BTC pegging. It targets the same developer audience (EVM builders seeking Bitcoin security) and competes for BTC DeFi application launches.
• Babylon: Babylon enables Bitcoin staking and restaking across proof-of-stake chains. It is comparable as a Bitcoin-native financial primitive, sharing the goal of expanding BTC's role beyond passive store-of-value into productive financial infrastructure.
• Scroll: Scroll is an EVM-equivalent ZK rollup with native zkEVM proving. It is comparable to Alpen as a ZK-based EVM scaling solution with a similar developer-focused GTM and ecosystem partnership model.

Broad incumbents

• StarkWare: StarkWare builds the Starknet ZK rollup, which is both an Alpen ecosystem partner (via the Starknet Foundation grant) and a broader incumbent in ZK rollup technology. Comparable as the leading ZK infrastructure provider and a key partner in Alpen's Strata vision.
• Polygon Labs: Polygon operates multiple ZK-based and optimistic L2 solutions (Polygon zkEVM, Polygon CDK). It is comparable as a broader incumbent in EVM scaling with significant developer tooling, ecosystem partnerships, and capital resources.
• zkSync (Matter Labs): zkSync is an EVM-compatible ZK rollup with a comparable developer-focused GTM targeting DeFi applications. It serves as a broader incumbent for ZK-based Ethereum scaling and competes for the same developer mindshare.

Emerging players

• Liquity Protocol: Liquity is a decentralized borrowing protocol that directly inspired Alpen's Bitcoin Dollar (BTD) stablecoin. It is comparable as the design template for Alpen's first major DeFi product and represents an adjacent DeFi primitive relationship.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/alpenlabs
• GitHubgithub.com/alpenlabs
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/alpen-labs

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors15 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Alpen Labs