# Citrea Acquires Crest and Plans Bitcoin Privacy Wallet Launch

By John Kim

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/23290
Published: 2026-09-23T13:10:20.000Z
Updated: 2026-09-23T13:10:20.000Z

Citrea has acquired self-custodial wallet Crest and plans to release a mobile product for private Bitcoin transactions in the coming weeks, expanding its privacy offerings around the Bitcoin network.

Crest will become Citrea’s flagship privacy product. Its founder, Meliksah Gurtemel, will join Citrea as product lead.

The planned wallet is designed to shield transactions automatically and support private Bitcoin transfers. It will also provide cross-chain access between Bitcoin and Ethereum, allowing users to move across both ecosystems from the same product.

Users will be able to use shielded Bitcoin addresses when paying EVM addresses with assets such as USDC and Ether (ETH). EVM addresses are compatible with networks that use the Ethereum Virtual Machine, the software environment behind Ethereum and other blockchain networks.

Citrea’s core contributor, Chainway Labs, previously developed Proof of Innocence, an open-source framework for privacy compliance. The framework allows users of privacy pools to show that their funds are not linked to illicit or blacklisted addresses without disclosing their identities.

The mobile wallet is expected to launch in the coming weeks.