Arch Labs Raises $13M in Funding for BTC-Based Smart Contracts

Arch Labs Raises $13M to Fund Bitcoin-Based Smart Contracts

The funding round, which valued Arch Labs at $200 million, was led by Pantera Capital.

Author: Jamie Crowley | Edited by: Sheldon Reback Updated: April 22, 2025, 4:38 PM Published: April 22, 2025, 4:08 PM

Important points:

• Arch Labs has raised $13 million to develop “ArchVM,” which the developers believe will enable smart contracts on the original Bitcoin blockchain.
• The company aims to implement decentralized applications and protocols integrated into Bitcoin, avoiding the need to move assets on a second-layer network, which can introduce additional risks.
• ArchVM will perform off-chain computation to enable “Turing-complete smart contracts at the Bitcoin base layer” and provide transaction speeds similar to Solana.

Bitcoin-based decentralized finance (DeFi) developer Arch Labs has raised $13 million to build “ArchVM,” which it says will bring smart contract functionality to the original blockchain.

The funding round, which valued the company at $200 million, was led by Pantera Capital, according to an announcement Tuesday.

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Arch's plans to implement decentralized applications and protocols on top of Bitcoin.

ArchVM will perform off-chain computation to enable “Turing-complete smart contracts on the Bitcoin base layer” and achieve transaction speeds similar to Solana, Arch Labs claims.

The push to implement smart contracts in Bitcoin began to gain traction in October with the introduction of the BitVM computing language.

Numerous projects are now using BitVM as a basis for migrating smart contracts to Bitcoin via layer 2 networks or bridges. Arch's goal is to avoid the need to move assets to layer 2, which can introduce additional risks.

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