Arthur Hayes-backed Bitcoin Ordinals Trading App Raises $3 Million

Pioneering bitcoin wallet company Oyl has secured a $3 million pre-seed investment from a variety of investors, including UTXO Management and Domo, the creator of the BRC-20 token standard.

The investment marks a noteworthy shift in cryptocurrency investment trends, with several Ethereum NFT funds making their first foray into a bitcoin-centric business. Arca, which led the round, is a venture firm with a history of investments in Ethereum NFTs and alternative blockchains. Now, the company is extending its portfolio into the bitcoin sphere through Ordinals. Other investors include Foresight Ventures, Taproot Wizards CEO Udi Wertheimer, and distinguished NFT funds Kanosei and FlamingoDAO.

“The speed of development on Bitcoin is primarily constrained by lack of infrastructure — we’re in a race to see who can create the most usable backend tooling for developers to build on,” said BRC-20 creator Domo.

Based in Brooklyn, NY, Oyl is set to launch in coming weeks, aiming to become the first bitcoin wallet to incorporate "in-wallet" trading of bitcoin and Ordinals. The app is designed to support market aggregation for BRC-20s and facilitate swap integrations with the "bitcoin DeFi" protocol Omnisat.io.

“We want to support the new surge of development on Bitcoin — starting with builder tools like RPCs, all the way to consumer platforms like the Wallet,” Alec Taggart, Oyl CEO, said in a statement.

Arthur Hayes, whose family office Maelstrom also participated in the funding, noted the growing recognition of the untapped potential within the bitcoin DeFi sector.

“Funds that have historically been focused on other chains are now seeing what’s possible on Bitcoin with Ordinals,” said Arthur Hayes. “The infra winners in ‘Bitcoin Defi’ are yet to be determined — it’s a huge opportunity.”

In addition to being on the verge of launching its wallet, Oyl has introduced Sandshrew, a product that offers developer tools such as Bitcoin Core, Esplora, and Ordinals endpoints.

Disclaimer: UTXO Management's parent company, BTC Inc., is also the parent company of Bitcoin Magazine. UTXO Management operates separately and independently from Bitcoin Magazine.