Newly launched Bitcoin tokens platform BRC20.com has raised $1.5 million in funding led by UTXO Management, the asset management arm of Bitcoin Magazine’s parent company BTC Inc.
The round included support from Zanshin Capital Management, Unbroken Chain, One Block Capital, Sora Ventures, OWL Ventures, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Hamble and New Tribe Capital.
The investment comes at a time of increased interest in the BRC-20 token standard, created in March 2023 to facilitate the creation and transfer of fungible tokens on Bitcoin through the Ordinals protocol.
"Today's news is an important milestone in the journey of BRC20.com as we announce some of the most active and strategic investors across the Bitcoin and Web3 ecosystems joining our mission of building the most user-friendly and comprehensive platform for discovering and interacting with BRC-20 tokens and other Bitcoin-based assets," the company said in a statement to Bitcoin Magazine.
The protocol has been criticized by some in the Bitcoin development community for its inefficient use of the Bitcoin protocol, as well as how the protocol has contributed to increasing the size of Bitcoin’s UTXO set, a crucial metric for Bitcoin’s scalability and decentralization.
However, the investment is notable given the recent increase in market capitalization for Bitcoin tokens including SATS and ORDI, which have risen to be worth more than $1 billion each and have been listed on exchanges such as Binance and OKX.
BRC20.com is best known for providing a CoinMarketCap style dashboard for Bitcoin tokens but plans to launch a mobile app that would allow users to bridge, trade and stake BRC-20 tokens with their phones. The company also plans to release a decentralized relayer network for new DeFi protocols powered by the .COM token.
Bitcoin Magazine is wholly owned by BTC Inc., which operates UTXO Management, a regulated capital allocator focused on the digital assets industry. UTXO invests in a variety of Bitcoin businesses, and maintains significant holdings in digital assets. Bitcoin Magazine does not endorse any tokens on bitcoin, including but not limited to BRC-20 tokens.