March 7, 2024—Oyl, a trailblazing Bitcoin wallet company, has raised a $3 million pre-seed investment from a range of investors, including UTXO Management and Domo, the creator of the BRC-20 token standard.
This investment highlights a significant shift in the cryptocurrency investment landscape, as various Ethereum NFT funds venture into the Bitcoin ecosystem. Arca, a venture firm with a track record in Ethereum NFTs and other blockchains, led the funding round. Now, the firm is expanding its portfolio to include the Bitcoin sphere through Ordinals. Other participants in the round include Foresight Ventures, Taproot Wizards CEO Udi Wertheimer, and prominent NFT funds Kanosei and FlamingoDAO.
“The pace of development on Bitcoin is mainly limited by the lack of infrastructure—there’s a race to see who can create the most user-friendly backend tools for developers to build on,” said Domo, creator of BRC-20.
Brooklyn-based Oyl is preparing to launch its app in the coming weeks, aiming to be the first Bitcoin wallet to offer “in-wallet” trading of Bitcoin and Ordinals. The app will provide market aggregation for BRC-20s and enable swap integrations with the “Bitcoin DeFi” protocol Omnisat.io.
“We want to support the new wave of development on Bitcoin—from developer tools like RPCs to consumer platforms like the wallet,” stated Alec Taggart, CEO of Oyl.
Arthur Hayes, whose family office Maelstrom also participated in the funding, emphasized the growing acknowledgment of untapped potential in the Bitcoin DeFi space.
“Funds previously focused on other chains are now realizing the potential of Bitcoin with Ordinals,” said Arthur Hayes. “The winners in ‘Bitcoin DeFi’ infrastructure are still to be determined—it’s a significant opportunity.”
In addition to the forthcoming launch of its wallet, Oyl has introduced Sandshrew, a product offering developer tools such as Bitcoin Core, Esplora, and Ordinals endpoints.
Disclaimer: UTXO Management’s parent company, BTC Inc., also owns Bitcoin Magazine. UTXO Management operates independently from Bitcoin Magazine.