PANews reported on January 30 that according to CoinDesk, decentralized infrastructure provider Elastos has raised US$20 million from private investment firm Rollman Management to expand its Bitcoin DeFi protocol BeL2 and promote its merged mining token ELA as a Bitcoin reserve asset.

BeL2 allows Bitcoin holders to pledge BTC and access Ethereum smart contract services such as stablecoin minting and peer-to-peer lending. Elastos aims to leverage Bitcoin’s nearly $2 trillion market capitalization to introduce richer DeFi applications to the BTC ecosystem to enhance liquidity and security, while making up for the shortcomings of the Bitcoin network in DeFi practicality.