# Alpen Labs

> Alpen Labs is a Bitcoin infrastructure company building Strata, a zero-knowledge (ZK) validity rollup and bridge that lets people borrow, earn, and transact in dollars directly on Bitcoin - without wrapped tokens or custodians. Founded in 2022 by a team of MIT alumni, the company uses ZK cryptography to bring programmable smart contracts and DeFi-style financial products to Bitcoin while preserving its security and decentralization.

- **Founded:** 2022
- **Headquarters:** New York, United States
- **Founders:** Simanta Gautam (Co-Founder & CEO), Pramod Kandel (Co-Founder), Abishkar Chhetri (Co-Founder), Chandan Sharma Subedi (Co-Founder)
- **Team size:** ~31 employees
- **Products:** Strata, Strata Bridge (1-of-N), Bitcoin Dollar (BTD), Developer tooling & docs
- **Notable:** Came out of stealth in April 2024 revealing $10.6M in seed funding, Raised a total of ~$19.1M across two rounds, Launched a public testnet for Bitcoin's own financial system in August 2025

## Products & services

- **Strata** — A sovereign zero-knowledge validity rollup and Bitcoin bridge that enables direct Bitcoin programmability - smart contracts and scalable transactions that settle on Bitcoin without wrapped tokens or custodians, in an EVM-compatible environment.
- **Strata Bridge (1-of-N)** — A hybrid optimistic bridge with a novel 1-of-N trust model, requiring only a single honest operator to keep bridged BTC safe.
- **Bitcoin Dollar (BTD)** — A BTC-backed stablecoin built in collaboration with the Liquity protocol team, letting users borrow dollars against their Bitcoin holdings.
- **Developer tooling & docs** — Public testnet, block explorers, documentation and open-source repositories for developers building Bitcoin-native DeFi applications.

## Achievements

- Came out of stealth in April 2024 revealing $10.6M in seed funding
- Raised a total of ~$19.1M across two rounds
- Launched a public testnet for Bitcoin's own financial system in August 2025
- Introduced Bitcoin Dollar (BTD), a BTC-backed stablecoin, with the Liquity team
- Designed a novel 1-of-N Bitcoin bridge trust model
- Grew an open-source presence of 60+ GitHub repositories

## Latest updates

- **2025-08** — Launched public testnet, introducing Bitcoin Dollar (BTD) and letting developers trade, borrow and earn yield on Bitcoin.
- **2025-01** — Closed $8.5M strategic financing led by Cyber Fund and DBA to accelerate Strata development ahead of mainnet.
- **2024-04** — Emerged from stealth, disclosing $10.6M in seed funding for its Bitcoin ZK rollup.

## Links

- Website: https://www.alpenlabs.io
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/alpen-labs
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/AlpenLabs
- GitHub: https://github.com/alpenlabs

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/alpen-labs
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-07