Compiled by Zen, PANews

From Polkadot to Polygon, Charlie Hu, a decade-long industry veteran, has led an entrepreneurial journey that spans nearly every critical phase of blockchain infrastructure development. As an early participant in the Polkadot ecosystem and a pioneer at Polygon in Asia Pacific, he not only amassed extensive technical and ecosystem experience but also keenly identified the explosive growth of the Bitcoin ecosystem in 2023. Leveraging his deep understanding and engineering expertise in BitVM technology, he teamed up with fellow tech geek Kevin He to co-found Bitlayer, a Layer 2 solution for Bitcoin's scalability and programmability, aiming to become the true "computing layer" of the Bitcoin network.

Since its mainnet launch in Q1 2024, Bitlayer has rapidly grown into a leader in the Bitcoin Layer 2 space, with on-chain transaction volume exceeding 71 million and a peak TVL of nearly $900 million, repeatedly topping the DefiLlama Bitcoin Layer 2 chart. Its core innovation, a decentralized cross-chain bridge and Rollup architecture built on BitVM, enables secure and efficient cross-chain asset transfers and smart contract execution without relying on Bitcoin mainnet upgrades. Backed by a team of experienced engineers with technical backgrounds from Polygon, Huobi Public Chain, Alibaba Super Chain, and Celestia, Bitlayer combines both Eastern and Western market experience with strong implementation capabilities.

Today (August 27th), Bitlayer, the Bitcoin-native second-layer network, officially launched the initial public offering (TGE) of its governance token, BTR, marking a new phase of the project's openness and ecosystem expansion. The official announcement indicated that BTR's listing and trading arrangements have entered the practical phase, with collaborations with multiple platforms on both the launch and trading arrangements.

In recent months, Bitlayer has been on a roll: They recently released the Bitlayer 2.0 whitepaper, redefining Bitcoin's Layer 2 infrastructure and launching the first mainnet Beta of a cross-chain bridge based on the BitVM paradigm. Furthermore, Bitlayer has established strategic partnerships with three major Bitcoin mining pools: Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool.

Facing a new cycle dominated by institutional capital, Bitlayer has clearly positioned itself as "institutional-grade Bitcoin financial infrastructure." Bitlayer has also secured funding from international institutions, having raised a total of $25 million. Backers include leading institutions such as Polychain Capital, Franklin Templeton, ABCDE, StarkWare, OKX Ventures, Alliance DAO, and UTXO Management. These funds and endorsements support its technological development and ecosystem expansion.

Amidst this Wall Street-driven bull market, Bitlayer has set a grand vision: to become a key bridge connecting Bitcoin's native assets with the traditional financial world. How will this goal be achieved? PANews recently conducted an exclusive interview with Bitlayer co-founder Charlie Hu. The following is the transcript:

A decade-long industry veteran's entrepreneurial journey: from Polkadot, Polygon to Bitlayer

PANews: What experiences did you have before founding Bitlayer?

Charlie: I've been involved in the tech sector since my early years studying for a master's degree in finance in the Netherlands. I'm quite familiar with early-stage accelerators, technological innovation, and the Internet of Things in particular. My formal introduction to Bitcoin was entirely accidental. In 2013, at a Bitcoin Meetup in Amsterdam, I learned about Bitcoin and mining from the community and began studying the Bitcoin white paper. However, at that time, I didn't consider blockchain a key career development focus, nor did I include it in my career plan.

In 2015, I attended Ethereum's DevCon in Berlin, Germany, where I learned about Ethereum. At the time, I was very interested in the work of Gavin Wood, who led the development of Polkadot. I volunteered with the Polkadot team and participated in the project's first round of investment through German friends.

Polkadot was my first major project after officially joining the industry. From 2017 to 2019, I provided simultaneous interpretation and translation at numerous domestic evangelistic events and several Polkadot Ecosystem China Tour events. I also co-founded a Polkadot ecosystem brand called "Polkabase." Through these experiences, I gained a wealth of knowledge about Polkadot and the entire Web3 ecosystem. At the same time, I gradually discovered some issues within the Polkadot ecosystem, such as the high cost of slot auctions. Consequently, my attention returned to Ethereum.

In 2021, I joined Polygon as their official China region manager, and later became the head of the Asia-Pacific region, responsible for project docking and maintaining developer relationships. I was also responsible for business development (BD) and major client partnerships, including those with NetEase, Roblox China, and Tencent. Later, as the project team gradually shifted their focus to the United States, and due to domestic policy and compliance issues, I left China and Polygon.

PANews: What led you to found Bitlayer?

Charlie: In early 2023, concepts such as Inscription and BRC-20 became popular. I was basically one of the earliest participants. I earned some Bitcoin from it and also observed the problems of the Bitcoin network: heavy congestion and high transaction fees. I realized that this was not a sustainable future.

At the time, many people, including me, believed that the widespread development of the Bitcoin ecosystem was inevitable, but that to achieve widespread adoption and even attract institutional participation, DeFi applications were necessary. However, these weren't feasible on the Bitcoin mainnet, so I began researching various solutions for scaling Bitcoin.

Then, in October 2023, we came across the BitVM white paper. This solution, based on Bitcoin's existing scripting language, could provide some scalability and verifiability without requiring a hard or soft fork or a mainnet upgrade. I found it very interesting, so I began researching it further with Kevin He.

At the time, BTCFi projects like Merlin and Babylon were extremely popular. We saw this as an opportunity and went all-in on Bitcoin's Layer 2 platform, officially establishing Bitlayer. Driven by our vision of becoming Bitcoin's "computing layer" and programmable infrastructure, we launched two core products: BitVM Bridge and Bitcoin Layer 2 Rollup.

Bitlayer Ecosystem and Team Status

PANews: How is the Bitlayer ecosystem developing now? What key data can be disclosed?

Charlie: It has been almost 20 months since Bitlayer was launched at the end of 2023, and a lot has happened in the meantime.

Our first round of financing was relatively early, with investors including OKX Ventures, ABCDE, and Comma3 Ventures, among other Asian capitals. In early 2024, I met with many European and American investors at EthDenver, including Framework Ventures, Alliance DAO, Asymmetric, and other European and American institutions, who subsequently participated in the investment.

That seed round, coupled with the whitepaper release and mainnet launch, propelled ecosystem development. Since the mainnet launch in April of last year, there have been approximately 71 million transactions, over 200 projects deployed, and approximately 10 active projects. The highest TVL reached nearly $900 million and currently remains at over $700 million, still ranking first on Deflama. Furthermore, the BitVM cross-chain bridge has completed testing and launched on mainnet, and our Bitcoin-based asset, YBTC, has been deployed on multiple leading protocols.

PANews: What is the size of the team and how do the two co-founders divide the work?

Charlie: We are a technology-driven company, with approximately 60% of our team members engaged in R&D. Our R&D team comprises approximately 35 full-time engineers, including BitVM researchers, front-end and back-end developers, and security professionals. The team is primarily comprised of Asian developers, with some European and American colleagues. We have over ten non-technical staff responsible for operations, business, and media matters. Overall, the company has approximately 50 full-time employees.

In terms of responsibilities, I'm responsible for business, strategy, and partnerships, including media outreach, developer relations, financing, and exchange and liquidity integration. Aside from R&D and product development, most other matters fall within my purview. Kevin oversees overall product development and technical research, and is responsible for technology-related decision-making and strategic work.

Why is Bitlayer so resilient in the Bitcoin L2 market, which has a high mortality rate?

PANews: There are many cases of Bitcoin layer 2 projects failing, being shut down, or undergoing transformation. What are the reasons?

Charlie: I think the real problems lie primarily in insufficient financing and a lack of team experience and technical expertise. Early-stage investors typically don't focus on revenue, as it's common for a product to be pre-launch and revenue-free. Therefore, they prioritize the team's track record, understanding of the industry, and the originality and differentiation of the technical solution. Timing is also crucial. Local resources, operational capabilities after the mainnet launch, the ability to attract and retain support from major investors, and the ability to recruit talented developers and foster institutional partnerships all directly impact a project's success.

Furthermore, connections and credibility are equally important. We were able to connect with early partners like Chainlink, LayerZero, and Nansen, and to establish strategic partnerships with Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool. These are resources that many teams don't have. Finally, technology must be innovative; simply copying or outsourcing will not survive in the long run. At the beginning of last year, many projects that claimed to be working on BTCFi or BTC L2 ultimately shut down, and few managed to persevere.

PANews: What are Bitlayer’s differentiated advantages?

Charlie: BitVM is our core technology strategy and choice. We believe BitVM is the only practical path to achieving Bitcoin scalability (especially verification capabilities) without relying on a mainnet hard or soft fork. If we rely on a mainnet upgrade, the implementation timeline will be far off, if not impossible.

The BitVM design combines the security of Bitcoin with the programmable verification capabilities of Ethereum. Verification can be performed in an EVM-like environment, unlocking the potential of verification capabilities. Based on this feasibility, we have chosen to fully invest in related research and engineering innovation. Since 2023, we have been one of the first core teams in Asia to initiate and continuously advance this direction.

Our development team is also a strength, comprising a large number of experienced engineers from major enterprises and blockchain projects, such as the Huobi public chain team and Alibaba's Super Chain team, as well as engineers with practical experience in projects such as Celestia's DA and Aztec's ZK. The team is primarily Asian, with some European and American colleagues, forming a diverse and competitive R&D lineup.

This has enabled us to build a solid foundation in research and engineering, with strong execution capabilities, faster implementation, and faster response times. This has enabled us to launch our mainnet earlier than some similar teams – we launched our mainnet last year, while many competitors were still in the testnet stage.

Overall, our technological foresight, background at a major company, and strong execution capabilities, combined with practical experience in collaborating with institutions and communities across Eastern and Western markets, give us a clear competitive advantage in both technical approach and market implementation. Our operations team, with backgrounds in Tencent and ByteDance, excels at integrating Web2 strategies with Web3 products. Our experience over the past year or so has initially validated our strategy and capabilities.

Technological innovation and business ambitions

PANews: What is Bitlayer’s business layout?

Charlie: One of our core OKRs/KPIs is to expand the scale and usage of YBTC on-chain. YBTC is a scalable asset based on BitVM and backed by a decentralized bridge at a one-to-one ratio with BTC. Our goal is to expand the on-chain YBTC volume to over 10,000 BTC by the end of the year and provide ample liquidity in leading blue-chip protocols to expand user awareness and adoption of YBTC—essentially creating a decentralized version of WBTC while highlighting the BitVM bridge technology and security behind it.

At the ecosystem level, YBTC's upstream liquidity can be supplied by various Bitcoin asset providers, while downstream, we are responsible for exporting infrastructure (such as TPL) for use by underlying protocols. When underlying protocols discuss the BTC ecosystem, we are a key BitVM partner and a contributor to TVL. We have currently partnered with nine ecosystems and received grant support from foundations as investors. With the launch of the Bitlayer v2 mainnet, we will also foster the development of more specialized applications—prediction markets and options products centered around Bitcoin assets, and even high-concurrency trading systems similar to Hyperliquid. Teams are already collaborating closely on these developments. Several blue-chip Ethereum protocols, such as Morpho and Aave, are also working to deploy on our chain, and deployment is proceeding smoothly.

On the institutional side, we are simultaneously accelerating the integration of institutional products and large-scale buying opportunities. Amid the rise of ETFs/ETBs, over-the-counter (OTC) trading, and institutional products, we are promoting ETP solutions and exploring collaborations with Bitcoin reserve companies and other large holders to provide them with tangible asset yield paths. For example, ProCap founder Anthony Pompliano recently became an investor. I interviewed him in New York, and we are jointly exploring collaborative scenarios for these companies, with the goal of providing stable and sustainable yield solutions for their BTC reserves.

PANews: Bitlayer released its 2.0 white paper some time ago, which mentioned many major technical development plans. Which of these are your team most concerned about and worth users' expectations?

Charlie: The BitVM Bridge, built on BitVM technology, has completed testing and audits, and will officially launch on the mainnet Beta in mid-2025. It is now in production and has already integrated or collaborated with multiple Layer 1 and Layer 2 platforms, including Solana, Sui, Base, Arbitrum, Cardano, and Starknet. The bridge utilizes Bitcoin Script-based fraud proofs and an operator challenge mechanism, significantly reducing the trust risk associated with centralized multi-signature swaps (such as WBTC). It can initiate challenges and verify transactions when suspected transaction anomalies or hacker attacks occur.

We are also promoting B2, a Rollup infrastructure project that uses BitVM as its verification core and aims to achieve Bitcoin-equivalent security. This solution supports the ultimate anchoring of transaction proofs to Bitcoin blocks and is currently in the final audit phase. As a core development team within the BitVM Alliance, we are responsible for the implementation of key modules, code audits, and bug bounties. We have also made original contributions to reducing proof size and optimizing verification costs, and have published technical papers on this topic. We have taken a lead role in this module and have driven many of its implementation efforts.

Looking ahead, V3 aims to introduce parallel execution and a higher-throughput architecture, while maintaining Bitcoin-equivalent security. This will support high-frequency, low-latency DeFi and transaction protocols, becoming a high-performance computing layer within the Bitcoin ecosystem. This approach is inspired by Alibaba's Super Chain implementation, and the team's current core architect, Daniel, previously led related technologies.

In the next 8-12 months, we will focus on promoting the engineering implementation and implementation of V3. Of course, this is a huge technical challenge, and our ambitions are also quite large.

BRT token will be launched soon

PANews: What are the specific functions of BTR and how does it empower the ecosystem and users?

Charlie: We were one of the first Bitcoin projects to complete a public offering on CoinList in 2025. CoinList brought us nearly 20,000 participants, covering Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Southeast Asia. We were also the first project to conduct an IDO on the GoMining platform, a Bitcoin cloud computing platform with approximately 3.6 million users, helping us reach a large number of European and American users. We hope to use these channels to help more people understand BitLayer and the business scenarios and value of BTCFi.

Regarding BTR's core functions, we are currently focusing on three key areas. 1. Governance: BTR holders can initiate and participate in network governance votes to decide on network-related proposals. 2. Node Staking: Staking BTR is a qualification for becoming a node, and nodes will share network fees and bridging-related revenue. 3. Gas: Currently, on-chain gas settlement is using wrapped BTC transferred back from Layer 2. In the future, BTR may become the network's gas token through voting or participate in the design of the fee mechanism.

The BTR token's TGE is currently being pre-launched on platforms like Binance Alpha, with a confirmed launch date of August 27th. Major exchanges that have already partnered include Bitget, Gate, MEXC, and LBank. Coinbase is also in discussions, but the exchange has pre-listing restrictions, prohibiting further fundraising within six months of listing, so the official listing may not take place until six months later. Discussions are still underway with Korean exchanges like Upbit, and no final confirmation has been made.

Opportunities and challenges in an institutionally-led bull market

PANews: Has BTCFi's development met expectations? Compared to the beginning of your business, have your perspectives on Bitlayer's development plans and the entire BTCFi space changed?

Charlie: Overall, the viable Bitcoin-related businesses are smaller and more concentrated than initially anticipated. The once-popular projects like Inscriptions and BRC-20 have seen a significant decline in consensus and activity, and many projects have stalled—network congestion and high gas fees are a major contributing factor. BRC-20 and Inscription-based assets are inherently limited in functionality and practical use cases, a fact I anticipated at the time.

Another significant change is that this bull market is driven by institutions, not by a large number of retail investors as in 2021. New liquidity, capital, and users are increasingly coming from institutions, making Bitcoin DeFi, which revolves around institutions, a key battleground. We need to explore and plan further in this direction.

Our core validation point is clear: unlocking Bitcoin's liquidity and enabling it to find sustainable business scenarios within blue-chip DeFi protocols. Our goal is to create long-term value for Bitcoin holders, including retail, large, and institutional investors. For example, by integrating Bitcoin into the ecosystem through a decentralized and trusted cross-chain bridge, we ensure that minted YBTC/YBDC can generate reasonable and sustainable returns, rather than relying on short-term incentives like issuance or subsidies.

Compared with the short-term speculative frenzy surrounding inscriptions at the end of 2023, and the large-scale pursuit of so-called "hundred-fold coins", the current market is gradually returning to balance on both the supply and demand sides, and the sentiment is more rational.

PANews: In this institutional bull market, what opportunities and challenges does Bitlayer face?

Charlie: Institutional inflows are now a consensus. ETFs and large over-the-counter orders (such as those from institutions like BlackRock) have brought sustained and scalable buying power to the market, driving prices higher over the long term.

This bull market is significantly different from the retail-driven cycle of 2021—the current surge relies more heavily on institutional funding and liquidity. Institutional investors provide a steady flow of large-scale buying and deep liquidity. Against the backdrop of a gradually easing macroeconomic environment (e.g., potential interest rate cuts) and gradual deregulation, more institutional products and complex financial engineering projects will emerge. We have the opportunity to become the infrastructure provider for these products.

At the same time, it is possible to explore cooperation with companies that hold large amounts of BTC (companies similar to MicroStrategy) to create feasible profit scenarios for their assets.

However, Wall Street's deep involvement also presents challenges. The market will be increasingly driven by large institutions and financial engineering, potentially leading to manipulation, hedging, and "whale" behavior. This will both alter the market landscape and shorten the time startups have to operate within the market window.

Although there are many opportunities, they do not necessarily fall to early-stage technical teams with limited resources. We face the risk of being squeezed in terms of resources and market position.

To this end, we will position ourselves as an institutional-grade infrastructure provider and service provider, focusing on delivering stable, secure and compliant basic products, including sustainable revenue paths, trusted cross-chain bridging and efficient settlement services.

At the same time, we will also proactively establish cooperation with mining pools, custodians, asset management companies and large BTC holders to provide feasible profit plans and technical support, so as to strive for and consolidate our market position in the institutionalization trend.