Citrea Opens ctUSD Pre-Deposit Vault With $50M in Institutional Liquidity Backing

Citrea launched a ctUSD Pre-Deposit Vault backed by over $50 million in institutional liquidity commitments (including Galaxy Digital) to bootstrap a Bitcoin Layer-2 DeFi ecosystem. The vault opens for USDC deposits on May 7 at 15:00 UTC with an initial deposit cap of $15 million; deposits have a two‑month lock-up. Liquidity will be supplied off‑vault as cBTC and ctUSD and deployed across DeFi lending markets (Morpho, Zentra Finance), DEXs and cBTC-based structured yield products. Depositors receive a reward equal to 0.6% of CTR’s total token supply. The move signals growing institutional interest and liquidity provision into Bitcoin-centric DeFi (BTCFi), potentially improving on‑ramps and yield opportunities tied to Bitcoin L2 activity, while exposing participants to smart‑contract and market risks.