We are thrilled to announce that tBTC, which already lets Bitcoin holders earn on the Ethereum blockchain with DeFi apps, now also enables safe access to the Celo Platform. Celo is designed to make it easy for anyone with a smartphone to send, receive, and store stablecoins running on Celo.

With tBTC already live on the tbtc.network, the Celo integration extends the options BTC holders have to earn safely with their BTC on different platforms, and creates a new bridge to the vibrant Celo community.

“We selected tBTC as the safe way to establish a bridge between BTC holders and the Celo community,“ said Marek Olszewski, CTO of cLabs, which started Celo in 2017 and is one of many contributors to the open-source project. “We share the core values of the teams behind tBTC to make financial tools accessible. They have a track record of safety and responsibility, which is extremely important both for Celo and for the health of the crypto ecosystem.”

The Celo Platform aims to make financial tools borderless, easy to use, and accessible for anyone with a mobile phone. Celo’s mission is to enable the 6 billion smartphone users worldwide to unlock the benefits of blockchain technology and stablecoins.

Empowering BTC Holders

Empowering people to use Bitcoin in DeFi apps across different platforms will be crucial to the long-term growth of the crypto economy, especially given nearly 60% of the total crypto market cap is currently held in BTC.

Launched with unprecedented security measures, tBTC is fully audited, open-source, and insured. A project of Keep, Summa and the Cross-Chain Group, tBTC lets people safely and simply exchange BTC for TBTC, an ERC-20 token that can be used on DeFi platforms, at a rate of 1:1.

tBTC launched according to a “release candidate” model, in which versions of the project are deemed “ready for prime time” — but may or may not be final, based on wider user feedback. Release candidates progress from 0, to 1, to 2, onward until a candidate is deemed final and upgraded to the stable release.

tBTC’s launch also included a graduated supply cap to give depositors and signers a measure of the ongoing risk and confidence in a system, while protecting overly enthusiastic early users from potential issues. After launch, tBTC shield mining rewards went live on Nexus Mutual and the first supply cap of 100 BTC was hit within a few days. For the first few weeks, the supply cap will rise by 250 BTC each week.

Thoughtful growth is the path to the greatest long-term success. That’s why we are so pleased the Celo Platform is integrating with tBTC, creating bridges across the crypto ecosystem.

Stay up-to-date on everything related to tBTC by joining the Discord channel and Celo by following on Twitter and joining the conversation on Discord.