BOB raises $9.5 million in latest strategic funding round to expand Bitcoin DeFi
Bitcoin DeFi project BOB (Build on Bitcoin) announced Thursday that it has raised a further $9.5 million via a strategic investment round, bringing its total funding to $21.1 million.Multi-round investors include Castle Island Ventures, which led its original $10 million seed round, as well as Ledger Cathay Fund, RockawayX, Asymmetric, IOSG Ventures, UTXO Management, Daedalus, CMS, Bankless Ventures, Hypersphere, Alliance, and Sigil/Zeeprime, according to a statement shared with The Block.BOB also received new strategic investments from Anchorage, Amber Group, and Sats Ventures in its latest fundraising, following an earlier $1.6 million angel investor round, though no valuation was disclosed."We believe in the enormous potential of Bitcoin DeFi and see BitVM as the best path forward for trustless BTC deposits and withdrawals," Castle Island Ventures Founding Partner Nic Carter said. "BOB is the only Layer 2 implementing both BitVM for trustless deposits and Bitcoin finality via staked Bitcoin for Bitcoin-secured DeFi transactions. We're excited to increase our investment and support BOB's mission to build the gateway to Bitcoin DeFi."BOB said it intends to use the fresh capital to accelerate development of its hybrid model, aiming to unlock new Bitcoin DeFi use cases and liquidity."The fact that we continue to attract new partners and so many of our original investors have doubled down speaks volumes to the work our team has done to define Bitcoin's central role in DeFi," BOB Co-Founder and BitVM Core Contributor Alexei Zamyatin said. "With the string of recent developments and tier 1 partners choosing BOB to support their Bitcoin strategies, we're demonstrating what's possible with BOB's unique Hybrid model, bringing together the strengths of Bitcoin and Ethereum to redefine Bitcoin's role in DeFi."What is BOB?BOB's Hybrid Chain aims to combine the strengths of the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks, securing apps, assets, and transactions with "staked BTC." It also plans BTC-secured bridges to other chains, providing a gateway to earn yield on bitcoin across multiple networks, the team said.Still in early development, BOB is not a fully-fledged, trust-minimized Layer 2 in the Ethereum-rollup sense. Like many of the newer so-called Bitcoin Layer 2 projects, BOB currently relies on trust assumptions — operating more like a hybrid EVM chain anchored to Bitcoin via multisig bridging.BOB recently launched native BTC support on testnet, backed by partners like Lombard, Amber Digital, and RockawayX, using its BitVM bridge to bring real bitcoin, not wrapped representations, to its ecosystem once live on the mainnet.Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.