DeFi protocol BitVault raises $2 million in pre-seed funding

DeFi protocol BitVault has announced the completion of a $2 million pre-seed funding round, with investors including GSR, Gemini, Auros, and Keyrock. BitVault will launch an over-collateralized stablecoin, bvUSD, backed by Bitcoin derivatives, along with its yield-bearing variant, sbvUSD. The protocol will be deployed on Katana, a new decentralized finance chain incubated by Polygon Labs and GSR, leveraging an authorized fork of Liquity V2 to enable permissioned lending, user-defined interest rates, and automated liquidation infrastructure. BitVault plans to deploy on Katana mainnet in June 2025 and is actively onboarding institutional borrowers.