What Chainway Labs does

Chainway Labs is a privately-held blockchain infrastructure company founded in 2022 and domiciled in the Cayman Islands, focused on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and zero-knowledge technology. Its core product, Citrea, is positioned as Bitcoin's first ZK rollup and was launched on mainnet on 2026-01-29. Citrea enhances Bitcoin blockspace via zero-knowledge proofs to enable capital market activity directly on Bitcoin, including BTC-backed lending, trading, and institutional USD settlement through the ctUSD stablecoin, which is issued 1:1 with cash and short-term US Treasuries via MoonPay.

The company's product portfolio has narrowed around Citrea as the core offering. Earlier projects — Proof of Innocence, a ZK protocol that lets Tornado Cash users prove non-illicit provenance of withdrawals, and OrdinalSafe, a non-custodial browser extension for BTC and Inscriptions (now discontinued) — established the team's ZK credibility but are not the commercial focus. Citrea's lending infrastructure is built with Morpho and UltraYield by Edge Capital, while Keyrock provides liquidity and strategy support. The company has assembled a tier-1 investor base, with Founders Fund and Galaxy Ventures as strategic backers and Delphi Ventures as a participant in a $2.7M seed round led by Galaxy Ventures in February 2024.

Chainway Labs operates with 1-10 employees under CEO and co-founder Orkun Kılıç. Its business model is transaction-fee based, capturing value from lending, trading, and settlement activity on the Citrea platform. Go-to-market is product-led and self-serve: the platform is globally accessible via citrea.xyz with no disclosed pricing, and distribution is supported by organic social (Twitter, LinkedIn), press coverage in Bitcoin Magazine, Decrypt, CoinDesk, Bloomberg, The Block, and CryptoSlate, and direct developer documentation. Revenue is not publicly disclosed, and the company was effectively pre-revenue at the time of mainnet launch.

Name

Chainway Labs

Legal name

Chainway Labs

Website

https://chainway.xyz

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Chainway Labs is a blockchain infrastructure company building Citrea, Bitcoin's first zero-knowledge rollup, which enables BTC-backed lending, trading, and USD settlement for Bitcoin holders, DeFi users, and developers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Bitcoin Layer 2 Infrastructure

NAICS

Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (522320)

SIC

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

akta.pro primary industry

On-Chain Payments & Stablecoin Infrastructure (Issuance, Rails, Treasury) (FSAGAMAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Stablecoins & On-Chain Money (fiat-backed, crypto-backed, algorithmic; issuance/redemption) (FSAPAEAB), Stablecoin Payment Rails & Settlement Networks (Issuer-Led) (FSADADAF)

Keywords

• Blockchain infrastructure
• Zero knowledge rollups
• Bitcoin Layer 2
• ZK-rollup platform
• Cryptocurrency infrastructure

Headquarters

HQ city

Grand Cayman

HQ country

Cayman Islands

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Platform Fees / Transaction Fees: As a ZK-rollup platform enabling BTC-backed lending and trading, Citrea generates revenue through transaction fees from the financial activities conducted on its platform. The platform aims to capture fee volume from lending, trading, and other DeFi activities to cover infrastructure costs and sustain operations.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Chainway Labs develops Citrea, Bitcoin's first zero-knowledge rollup, which extends Bitcoin blockspace capabilities to enable capital market activity directly on the Bitcoin network. The platform supports BTC-backed lending, trading, and institutional USD settlement via the ctUSD stablecoin, alongside additional projects such as the open-source Proof of Innocence zero-knowledge protocol and the discontinued OrdinalSafe browser extension.

Product overview

Chainway Labs is a blockchain infrastructure company focused on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Zero Knowledge technology. Their product portfolio centers on Citrea as the core offering - Bitcoin's first ZK rollup that enables capital market activities on Bitcoin including BTC-backed lending, trading, and USD settlement via the ctUSD stablecoin. The company previously developed Proof of Innocence (a zero-knowledge privacy tool for Tornado Cash) and OrdinalSafe (a Bitcoin wallet extension for managing BTC and Inscriptions, now discontinued).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Citrea: Bitcoin's First ZK Rollup - the first rollup that enhances the capabilities of Bitcoin blockspace with zero-knowledge technology, making it possible to build everything on Bitcoin. Enables BTC collateral lending, BTC-structured products, and USD settlement through ctUSD stablecoin.
• Proof of Innocence
• OrdinalSafe

Products and services

• Citrea Citrea is Bitcoin's first ZK rollup, enhancing Bitcoin blockspace with zero-knowledge technology to enable BTC-backed lending, trading, and USD settlement via the ctUSD stablecoin for developers, institutions, DeFi users, and traders.
• Proof of Innocence Proof of Innocence is an open-source zero-knowledge proof protocol that enables Tornado Cash users to demonstrate that their withdrawn funds are not illicit, supporting privacy while enabling compliance, and has been adopted by projects such as Railgun DAO.

Quantifiable outcome

• Projected $50 million active DeFi liquidity within first few weeks of mainnet launch
• +1 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• MoonPaycoreTechnology or IntegrationMoonPay issues ctUSD stablecoin and provides banking rails integration for fiat on- and off-ramps on the Citrea platform. This partnership enables seamless conversion between fiat currency and on-chain assets.
• MorphocoreTechnology or IntegrationPartnered with Morpho to develop lending infrastructure on Citrea, enabling BTC-backed lending and borrowing functionality on the platform. Morpho brings established lending protocol expertise to the Bitcoin-native DeFi ecosystem.
• UltraYield by Edge CapitalcoreTechnology or IntegrationPartnered with UltraYield to develop lending infrastructure, providing yield strategies and capital efficiency solutions for BTC collateral on the Citrea platform.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Rootstock (RSK Labs): Bitcoin sidechain with EVM compatibility enabling DeFi and smart contracts on Bitcoin. Competes with Citrea for the same BTC-collateralized lending and trading use cases.
• Babylon: Bitcoin staking protocol enabling BTC to be used to secure other networks. Comparable as Bitcoin-native infrastructure expanding BTC's utility beyond store-of-value, intersecting with Citrea's goal of unlocking idle BTC capital.
• Scroll: ZK rollup on Ethereum delivering EVM-equivalent execution at lower cost. Closely comparable on the ZK-based scaling architecture Citrea applies to Bitcoin.
• zkSync (Matter Labs): ZK rollup on Ethereum enabling scalable DeFi and payments. Comparable on ZK rollup architecture and the DeFi/payments focus, though anchored to Ethereum rather than Bitcoin.
• Stacks: Bitcoin L2 enabling smart contracts and DeFi on Bitcoin via its own consensus mechanism. Most directly comparable to Citrea as both target the Bitcoin-native application infrastructure gap, though Stacks uses a proof-of-transfer model rather than ZK rollups.
• BEVM: Bitcoin L2 using BTC as gas via a fully EVM-compatible environment. Competes with Citrea for Bitcoin-native DeFi and BTC-collateralized applications.
• BOB (Build on Bitcoin): Bitcoin L2 combining Bitcoin security with EVM compatibility, focused on DeFi and BTC bridging. Directly comparable as a Bitcoin-native L2 targeting similar DeFi primitives.

Broad incumbents

• StarkWare: Provider of STARK-based ZK rollup technology (Starknet, StarkEx). Comparable on ZK proof architecture but a broader incumbent powering multiple chains rather than a single Bitcoin L2.
• Polygon Labs: Major L2/scaling ecosystem with Polygon zkEVM and AggLayer. Operates across multiple chains and offers overlapping ZK infrastructure capabilities, but at much broader scale than Chainway Labs.

Emerging players

• Morpho: DeFi lending protocol that Chainway Labs has partnered with for Citrea's lending infrastructure. Comparable as a lending primitive that Citrea embeds, while also standing as a potential alternative lending layer on competing L2s.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/chainway_xyz
• GitHubgithub.com/chainwayxyz
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/chainway

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors2 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 Chainway Labs