Citrea launches CTR token and dual treasuries for Bitcoin scaling

Citrea has launched CTR, a native token paired with a dual-treasury structure intended to fund development of a Bitcoin scaling layer and support ongoing ecosystem work. The company said proceeds will flow into two treasuries for long-term protocol engineering and near-term operational needs.

Citrea described CTR as a utility and governance token for its scaling stack, which the team says is designed to increase transaction throughput and add programmability on top of Bitcoin. The company plans to use initial token proceeds to pay for engineering, security audits, developer grants and ecosystem partnerships. CTR holders will have voting rights over treasury spending and some protocol upgrades.

The dual-treasury model divides funds into two pools. One treasury will hold assets earmarked for core protocol development and will be maintained in Bitcoin and other long-duration assets to preserve purchasing power for future engineering work. The second treasury will hold liquid assets, including CTR and stablecoins, to fund immediate operational expenses, marketing, partnerships and community incentive programs. Citrea said the separation is intended to preserve long-term runway while keeping funds available for near-term activity.

A portion of CTR supply will be allocated directly to the treasuries at launch. Additional funding is expected from token sale proceeds and a share of transaction fees generated by the scaling layer once it is live. The company plans staged token releases, multi-signature controls for treasury withdrawals and periodic reviews by independent auditors.

Citrea released a roadmap that prioritizes a public testnet, security audits and developer tooling in the coming months. The team said it expects to open a developer grant program funded by the treasury to accelerate integrations with wallets and service providers. The project did not provide a firm mainnet date and said larger treasury disbursements will be tied to technical milestones and external security reviews.

Governance plans grant CTR holders voting power over treasury allocations and certain protocol parameters. On-chain governance proposals will require defined quorum and approval thresholds. Citrea said some core spending decisions will remain subject to multisig sign-offs from a founding committee during an initial transition period.

The company published technical documentation and a whitepaper that outline the token economics and governance framework. The initial distribution will combine direct sales and community allocation; Citrea said it will publish details on allocation percentages, pricing and exchange listings on its official channels. The team emphasized vesting schedules for team and advisor allocations and said anti-dumping measures will be part of the distribution plan.

In a statement, Citrea’s co-founder and CEO wrote, “We designed CTR and the two-treasury approach to create predictable, long-term funding for building on Bitcoin while keeping the project responsive to community needs. Separating long-term reserves from liquid operational funds helps ensure developers can plan multi-year work without sacrificing day-to-day momentum.”

Bitcoin’s base layer has limited native support for smart contracts and high transaction throughput, which has led developers to build Layer 2 and complementary scaling solutions. Funding for open-source protocol work has commonly come from venture capital, grants or donations. Citrea said CTR and the dual-treasury design aim to provide a structured funding mechanism tied to the project’s activity and token economics.