Citrea acquires privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet Crest to boost BTC privacy transactions

Bitcoin layer-2 platform Citrea announced the acquisition of self-custody privacy wallet Crest to integrate Zcash-style zero-knowledge privacy pools into Bitcoin. Crest’s founder Meliksah Gurtemel will join Citrea as product lead. The wallet will launch in the coming weeks, supporting automatic shielding, private BTC transfers, and cross-chain private payments (BTC to USDC or ETH on EVM chains). Citrea co-founder and CEO Orkun Mahir Kılıç stated that solving Bitcoin privacy is key to meeting real user demand.