BOB, a London-based blockchain project building a hybrid bitcoin and ethereum DeFi chain, has raised US$21 million in funding since December 2024.

Its latest round brought in US$9.5 million from new investors like Anchorage, Amber Group, and Sats Ventures, alongside existing backers Castle Island Ventures, Ledger, and RockawayX.

Castle Island Ventures previously led BOB’s US$10 million seed round.

The company recently launched its testnet, enabling native Bitcoin DeFi transactions with institutions such as Lombard, Amber Digital, and RockawayX.

BOB uses a hybrid ZK rollup to lower costs and integrates with secure wallet infrastructure from Fireblocks.

It plans to support native BTC, not wrapped tokens, in DeFi applications once it goes live on mainnet.

🔗 Source: BOB

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Bitcoin DeFi remains a fraction of its claimed potential despite growing infrastructure investment

BOB’s claim of a $750 billion “latent capital opportunity” in Bitcoin DeFi contrasts sharply with current market reality.

The total value locked across all Bitcoin Layer-2 solutions reached just $1.07 billion as of September 2024, representing less than 1% of Bitcoin’s market capitalization1.

This gap highlights the persistent challenge facing Bitcoin DeFi projects: while Bitcoin’s $750+ billion market cap suggests enormous potential, actual utilization remains minimal compared to Ethereum’s established DeFi ecosystem.

The broader DeFi market shows $140.902 billion in total value locked2, meaning Bitcoin-based DeFi represents less than 1% of all DeFi activity despite Bitcoin being the largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

This disparity explains why projects like BOB are raising significant funding to build the infrastructure needed to unlock Bitcoin’s DeFi potential, though the technical and adoption hurdles remain substantial.

2️⃣ Crypto funding patterns show institutions prioritize infrastructure over consumer applications

BOB’s funding success reflects a broader institutional shift toward infrastructure investments in crypto.