Citrea Acquires Crest to Launch Self-Custodial Private Bitcoin Mobile Wallet

Citrea, a Bitcoin application layer, has acquired the self-custodial wallet Crest to integrate zero-knowledge privacy into the Bitcoin ecosystem. This move addresses the growing demand for transactional anonymity on Bitcoin’s public ledger, providing fintech professionals and users with a streamlined path to private, cross-chain financial interactions without sacrificing the underlying security of the network.

What was announced

The acquisition brings Crest’s zero-knowledge privacy pools directly into Citrea’s Bitcoin-secured execution environment. The primary objective is to eliminate the technical hurdles that have historically relegated Bitcoin privacy to expert-level workflows. By integrating Crest, Citrea aims to establish a new standard for mobile, self-custodial privacy that functions as a primary gateway for onboarding both users and liquidity into its broader network.

The technical rollout, expected in the coming weeks, includes a mobile wallet featuring auto-shielding and private BTC transfers. A key differentiator of the product is the inclusion of seamless cross-chain onboarding from both the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks. This functionality will enable private cross-chain swaps where users can pay Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) addresses in USDC or ETH using Bitcoin, all while maintaining privacy through Citrea’s infrastructure. This capability addresses a significant pain point for users who currently must choose between privacy and cross-chain utility.

As part of the deal, Crest founder Meliksah Gurtemel has joined Citrea as Product Lead. The integration is designed to expand the utility of private Bitcoin across the broader Citrea ecosystem, which currently targets institutional and retail access to Bitcoin-based capital markets. Interested users are currently being directed to a waitlist to gain early access to the mobile interface, which Citrea describes as the world’s simplest private Bitcoin mobile wallet. The acquisition reflects a commitment to making privacy the "easiest and most natural way" to interact with the asset class.

"Solving Bitcoin privacy is the single largest unlock for meeting real user demand on a Bitcoin layer. Crest is built to be the primary gateway for onboarding users and liquidity from the Bitcoin and privacy ecosystems into Citrea. Acquiring Crest aligns our entire team behind a vision that will generate the most value and adoption for our broader network."

Orkun Mahir Kılıç, Co-founder and CEO of Chainway Labs.

The companies involved

Citrea functions as a dedicated application layer for the Bitcoin network, designed to enable the creation of complex financial products and capital markets while remaining anchored to Bitcoin’s underlying security model. The project has attracted significant institutional backing from prominent venture capital firms, including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Galaxy Ventures. Other notable participants in its funding rounds include Maven 11, Delphi Digital, and high-profile individual investors such as Balaji Srinivasan and Erik Voorhees.

The development of Citrea is supported by Chainway Labs, where Orkun Mahir Kılıç serves as Co-founder and CEO. The platform’s architecture is built to expand the financial utility of the world’s largest cryptocurrency, which currently holds a market capitalization exceeding $1.5 trillion. Crest, the acquisition target, is a specialized developer of self-custodial wallet technology. It was founded by Meliksah Gurtemel with the specific intent of simplifying zero-knowledge privacy tools for the average mobile user. By removing the friction associated with legacy privacy protocols, Crest has positioned itself as a provider of "privacy pools" within the emerging Bitcoin Layer 2 landscape, aiming to emulate the demand seen in networks like Zcash.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has previously tracked Citrea’s efforts to bridge the gap between Bitcoin and traditional financial rails. In August 2026, we covered how Citrea and MoonPay Launch Fiat Onramps for ctUSD to Scale Bitcoin Capital Markets, a move that introduced stablecoin liquidity to the Citrea ecosystem. This followed our report on the broader infrastructure shifts at MoonPay, including when MoonPay Debuts MoonPay Enterprise: A Unified Global Stablecoin Infrastructure for Banks and Merchants. These developments highlight a consistent trend of Citrea seeking to integrate Bitcoin more deeply with EVM-compatible assets and institutional-grade onramps, positioning the network as a hub for cross-chain liquidity.

What this means

This acquisition signals a pivot in the Bitcoin Layer 2 sector toward user experience and privacy as primary competitive advantages. While many scaling solutions focus purely on transaction throughput, Citrea is betting that the "surveillance target" nature of Bitcoin’s public ledger is a significant barrier to institutional and private wealth adoption. By embedding zero-knowledge privacy at the wallet level, they are challenging the dominance of transparent-only sidechains. The industry now faces a critical question: can privacy-preserving tools satisfy regulatory scrutiny while meeting the growing demand for anonymity? As surveillance technology improves, the pressure on non-private networks to provide similar "auto-shielding" features will likely intensify across the fintech landscape.