Bitcoin protocol Surge has secured $1.8 million in pre-seed funding to address the network’s scalability challenges.
As the Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem continues to grapple with unresolved scalability issues, startups are actively seeking solutions to unlock billions of dollars in liquidity from the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.
Surge, a Bitcoin-centric protocol aiming to foster the BTCfi economy, has raised $1.8 million in pre-seed funding to tap into the cryptocurrency’s “full potential as a global currency and innovation base layer,” according to a press release shared with crypto.news.
Backed by investors such as Autonomy, Gerstenbrot Capital, and Double Peak Group, along with angel investors including CoinGecko co-founders Bobby Ong and TM Lee, Surge seeks to improve upon earlier scalability solutions like SegWit and Taproot.
Surge’s solution, known as the MetaLayer, leverages Bitcoin’s security model without requiring soft or hard forks, employing advanced cryptographic techniques like zero-knowledge proofs and Inter-Blockchain Communication, the release stated.
Surge to Introduce Move-Based Rollups to Bitcoin
In partnership with Movement Labs, Surge aims to bring liquidity to Move-based decentralized finance by enabling developers to connect the Bitcoin and Move ecosystems. Co-founder Yash Belavadi explained that the funding will allow the startup to build “scaling infrastructure,” enabling teams to focus on use-cases like DeFi, micropayments, gaming, and non-financial applications.
With this funding, Surge is preparing to launch its testnet, though exact timelines have not been disclosed.
The push for DeFi on the Bitcoin network has gained momentum, following a report by Pantera Capital predicting that Bitcoin-based DeFi could attract hundreds of billions in liquidity, with the potential to rival Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem.
Read more: Blockchain developer to fork BRC-20 to bring DeFi to Bitcoin.