Tether leads $5.2M round for Ark Labs to expand Bitcoin finance
6.7 Investments Ark Labs raised $5.2M led by Tether to develop Arkade, a Layer 2 platform for programmable finance and stablecoins on Bitcoin, aiming to expand Bitcoin’s financial capabilities.
Ark Labs has raised $5.2 million in a seed funding round led by Tether, with participation from Anchorage Digital, Ego Death Capital, Epoch VC, Lion26, Sats Ventures, Contribution Capital, and several angel investors. This brings Ark Labs' total institutional funding to over $7.7 million. The new capital will be used to develop Arkade, a Layer 2 platform designed to bring programmable finance, stablecoins, and digital assets to the Bitcoin network. Arkade aims to enable off-chain issuance and settlement of assets, supporting faster transactions and the creation of financial applications such as payment networks and lending tools. This initiative addresses Bitcoin’s lack of native programmability—a feature that has allowed more complex financial tools on blockchains like Ethereum and Solana. Tether’s investment highlights a strategic effort to expand USDT’s accessibility and utility on the Bitcoin network, beyond its traditional use on other smart contract platforms.
