Citrea announced the launch of ctUSD, a dollar‑pegged stablecoin fully backed by short‑term U.S. Treasury bills and cash, aimed at supplying native, regulated liquidity to Bitcoin layer‑2 applications.
ctUSD is described as a 1:1 U.S. dollar‑denominated token whose reserves consist of short‑term U.S. Treasuries and cash. MoonPay acts as issuer, while M0 supplies the universal stablecoin infrastructure.
Citrea positions ctUSD as an on‑chain settlement currency for Bitcoin DeFi and NFT use cases, intended to be minted directly on the Citrea layer‑2 rather than bridged from other chains. That design is intended to limit the systemic risk associated with multiple bridged variants of the same stablecoin and to concentrate liquidity within a single canonical asset for Bitcoin applications.
Citrea presented ctUSD as part of an integrated stack of partners and rails. MoonPay provides issuance and compliance coverage; Iron (a MoonPay company) will enable virtual IBANs for fiat on‑ and off‑ramps; Swaps.xyz offers non‑custodial cross‑chain access; and Helio will support merchant payments. Investors backing Citrea include Founders Fund, Galaxy, Maven 11 and Delphi Digital, signaling institutional interest in native Bitcoin liquidity.
Orkun Kilic, co‑founder and CEO of Chainway Labs, said the launch “guarantees a singular, canonical asset, thereby fortifying the ecosystem’s integrity.” That statement framed the project as an attempt to prevent early fragmentation and to concentrate capital efficiency within Citrea.
Regulation and compliance
Citrea framed ctUSD as built to align with evolving regulatory proposals, citing the proposed GENIUS Act as an example of the kind of U.S. legislative clarity the project expects will support Treasury‑backed stablecoins. MoonPay’s role brings U.S. money‑transmitter licensing and compliance controls; the issuer retains the legal ability to freeze addresses or implement blacklists where required.
The announcement emphasized a compliance‑first distribution model: ctUSD is intended to be accessible globally while respecting jurisdictional limits, and MoonPay’s existing licensing footprint underpins that approach.
For market participants, the principal questions now are operational: how rapidly liquidity forms on Citrea, whether ctUSD maintains strict reserve transparency, and how regulators in the U.S. and abroad react to a Treasury‑backed stablecoin issued into a Bitcoin rollup.
Investors and builders are likely to watch liquidity and redemption mechanics closely over the coming months. As Citrea seeks to make ctUSD the canonical dollar for Bitcoin apps, market acceptance and regulatory signals — particularly from U.S. policymakers considering stablecoin frameworks — will determine whether the token becomes a durable settlement rail or remains a niche alternative.
