Citrea and MoonPay Launch Fiat Onramps for ctUSD to Scale Bitcoin Capital Markets

Citrea has integrated MoonPay onramps and offramps for its native stablecoin, ctUSD, bridging the gap between traditional fiat currency and the Bitcoin-secured decentralized finance ecosystem. This move provides institutional and retail investors with a direct, regulated pathway to move capital between bank accounts and Bitcoin-based lending markets, vaults, and yield-bearing products.

What was announced

The integration establishes a direct link between off-chain fiat and on-chain collateral within the Citrea ecosystem. Citrea, recognized as the first zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup for Bitcoin, utilizes this infrastructure to extend Bitcoin’s underlying security to more complex, programmable financial instruments. The centerpiece of this integration is ctUSD, a 1:1 U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoin. This asset is issued by MoonPay and powered by M0’s modular stablecoin infrastructure, maintaining its peg through a reserve of U.S. dollars and short-term Treasury bills.

The new onramp and offramp services are immediately available in over 120 countries. In the United States, the service is live across most jurisdictions, with the specific exceptions of New York, Colorado, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. By removing the multi-step process typically required to convert fiat into Bitcoin-layer assets, the partnership aims to increase the velocity of capital entering Citrea’s lending markets and vaults. For users, this means the ability to purchase or liquidate ctUSD directly via standard banking methods rather than relying solely on crypto-to-crypto exchanges.

"Bitcoin needs the same fiat connectivity that every other major chain already has. ctUSD gives Bitcoin applications a dollar-denominated settlement asset backed by Treasury bills and cash. Our onramps and offramps make that asset reachable from a bank account, not just a wallet. That is the infrastructure Bitcoin's capital markets need to scale."

Ivan Soto-Wright, Founder & CEO at MoonPay.

The companies involved

Citrea is a prominent player in the Bitcoin scaling landscape, serving as the first zero-knowledge rollup designed to bring smart contract functionality to the world’s oldest blockchain. The protocol is developed by Chainway Labs, a venture focused on expanding Bitcoin's utility beyond a simple store of value into a foundation for programmable finance. By leveraging ZK-proofs, Citrea aims to maintain Bitcoin's security guarantees while enabling high-throughput applications.

MoonPay is a major financial technology firm that provides the payments infrastructure for the crypto economy. The company specializes in building bridges between traditional banking systems and digital assets, offering a suite of products that include on-and-offramps, minting facilities, and nft checkout solutions. MoonPay has recently expanded its reach into institutional-grade stablecoin issuance and AI-integrated payment tools. The stablecoin at the heart of this deal, ctUSD, is further supported by M0, a provider of modular infrastructure specifically designed for the creation and management of stablecoins, ensuring the asset remains compliant and transparently backed by high-quality liquid reserves.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely followed MoonPay’s aggressive expansion into diverse sectors of the fintech market. In August 2026, we covered the launch of MoonPay Debuts MoonPay Enterprise: A Unified Global Stablecoin Infrastructure for Banks and Merchants, which signaled the firm's intent to dominate the B2B stablecoin space. This followed the innovative release of MoonPay Launches PayBox: Turning AI Prompts into Payments for ChatGPT and Claude in July 2026. Our coverage of the broader stablecoin and infrastructure landscape also includes the Linux Foundation Launches x402 Foundation to Standardize AI Agent Payments Over HTTP and Lurra Capital Invests $7 Million in LurraPay to Revolutionize Stablecoin Banking, highlighting a period of intense institutional interest in dollar-pegged digital assets.

What this means

This integration is a significant milestone for "Bitcoin DeFi." While Ethereum and Solana have long enjoyed seamless fiat-to-stablecoin pipelines, Bitcoin’s secondary layers have often felt isolated. By bringing MoonPay’s global payment rails to Citrea, Chainway Labs is effectively removing the "complexity tax" that has historically deterred non-native crypto users from exploring Bitcoin rollups. The use of Treasury-backed reserves for ctUSD also places pressure on less transparent stablecoin issuers. Watch for whether this move triggers a liquidity migration from Ethereum-based DeFi back toward Bitcoin, as the security of the latter combined with the ease of use of the former is a compelling proposition for institutional treasury desks.