Bitcoin Startup Secures $50M for Secure Cross-Chain Trading Protocol

Portal to Bitcoin, a Bitcoin-first protocol, has raised $50M in new financing led by Paloma Investments, bringing the project's total funds raised to $92M. The funding will support the expansion of BitScaler, which scales native Bitcoin without custodial bridges or insecure alternatives. The company aims to make Bitcoin the settlement layer for millions of markets, including tokenized stocks, bonds, and stablecoins. Portal plans to use the new capital to expand its grants program and onboard institutional and community liquidity providers.

Portal to Bitcoin, a Bitcoin-first protocol enabling trust-minimized cross-chain trading, has secured $50 million in new financing led by Paloma Investments, bringing the project's total funds raised to $92 million [1]. The funding will support the expansion of BitScaler, the firm's adapter that scales native Bitcoin without wrapped tokens, custodial bridges, or insecure alternatives [1].

The company aims to make Bitcoin the settlement layer for millions of markets, including tokenized stocks, bonds, stablecoins, and other real-world assets [1]. Portal plans to use the new capital to expand its grants program and onboard both institutional and community liquidity providers [1]. Pilot integrations with wallets and custody platforms are also underway to showcase non-custodial swaps [1].

If Bitcoin succeeds in becoming the default settlement layer for cross-chain trading, it could redraw the map of global crypto liquidity, anchoring tokenized markets directly to the world’s largest and most secure blockchain [1].

References:
[1] https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/08/28/a-bitcoin-startup-raised-usd50m-to-allow-users-to-trade-with-bitcoin-grade-security