Bitlayer closes $9m extended series A round led by Polychain Capital

Bitlayer, a Layer 2 platform on Bitcoin, has raised $9 million in its extended Series A funding round, bringing the total raised during the funding round to $25 million.

The Bitcoin (BTC) L2 network announced that venture capital firm Polychain Capital led the extended round, with asset manager Franklin Templeton, which co-led the first phase, returning to co-lead.

Bitlayer Labs highlighted the funding round as a key step ahead of the anticipated launch of Bitlayer V2. This version introduces a Bitcoin-native rollup leveraging OpVM, protecting state transitions through validity proofs and fraud proofs.

Commenting on the technology, co-founder Kevin He said:

“It empowers Bitcoin to seamlessly integrate into any programmable blockchain environment in a trustless manner, which will catalyze rapid development and widespread adoption of a decentralized application ecosystem based on Bitcoin’s substantial liquidity.”

Advancing Bitcoin’s L2 ecosystem

The latest investment follows Bitlayer’s $5 million seed round closed in March 2024 and the $11 million Series A round in July. Since launching its mainnet V1 on April 15, Bitlayer has gained traction, and the latest funding reinforces investor confidence in the platform.

Growth metrics for Bitlayer include the deployment of more than 280 decentralized applications across infrastructure, developer tools, decentralized finance, wallets, non-fungible tokens, and gaming. Real-world assets and the metaverse are also seeing notable activity on the network.

Key partnerships have emerged with platforms like Ankr, Polyhedra, Particle Network, and Babylon. Bitlayer Labs has also teamed up with blockchain security auditor Hacken and cloud computing provider AWS Cloud.

SCB Limited, Selini Capital, and G-20 Group were among the backers in the extended round. The July fundraising received investment from Framework Ventures, Franklin Templeton, ABCDE, and OKX Ventures, among others.