Citrea Acquires Crest to Bring Zcash-Style Privacy to Bitcoin
Today, we are thrilled to announce the acquisition of Crest, a self-custodial private Bitcoin wallet, uniting our teams to make privacy the standard for holding and moving a $1.6T store of value.
Built on Citrea's Bitcoin-secured execution environment, Crest started as an ecosystem project with a bold ambition: to set a new benchmark for mobile, self-custodial Bitcoin privacy. The demand for a frictionless privacy solution was immediate, with Crest quickly attracting over 1,000 privacy enthusiasts to its waitlist. To accelerate this mission, Crest becomes Citrea's flagship privacy product, and Crest's founder Meliksah Gurtemel joins Citrea as Product Lead.
Working on Privacy is a Natural Fit for Citrea
Bringing privacy to Bitcoin is the natural continuation of a journey our team started years ago. Chainway Labs, a core contributor to Citrea, developed the Proof of Innocence protocol as an open-source framework for privacy-preserving compliance in response to Tornado Cash sanctions in 2022. Proof of Innocence is an open-source cryptographic tool that lets privacy pool users prove their funds are not linked to illicit or blacklisted addresses without revealing their identity. Today, concepts from Proof of Innocence underpin leading privacy protocols including Railgun and Privacy Pools.
“Tackling privacy bottlenecks was where our journey began,” said Ekrem Bal, Co-founder and Chief Scientist at Chainway Labs, a core contributor to Citrea. “In many ways, acquiring Crest is a full-circle moment for us, where we get to bring the privacy work we started to Bitcoin.”
As a Bitcoin layer, we see privacy as the most critical value proposition to build. With a market capitalization exceeding $1.6 trillion, Bitcoin’s transparent public ledger has turned user balances, counterparties, and transaction histories into surveillance targets. Bitcoin users seeking privacy must either forfeit self-custody, navigate expert-only technical workflows, or swap into alternative privacy assets. Networks like Zcash already demonstrated the immense demand for simple and intuitive privacy. With this acquisition, Citrea commits its resources to bring that same effortless privacy standard to Bitcoin.
“Solving Bitcoin privacy is the single largest unlock for meeting real user demand on a Bitcoin layer,” said Orkun Mahir Kılıç, Co-founder and CEO of Chainway Labs, a core contributor to Citrea. “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.”
Join the Waitlist: World’s Simplest Private Bitcoin Wallet is Coming
Through Crest, we are building the simplest and most accessible private Bitcoin wallet on the market. In the coming weeks, Crest will launch its Bitcoin mobile wallet with auto-shielding, private BTC transfers, and seamless cross-chain onboarding from Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Crucially, the wallet will enable private cross-chain swaps and exit routes, allowing users to spend shielded BTC to pay EVM addresses in assets like USDC or ETH privately. Over time, the acquisition aims to extend private BTC utility across Citrea’s broader ecosystem.
Privacy is becoming the easiest way to use Bitcoin.