Trust Machines is a Bitcoin-focused technology company and ecosystem investor founded in 2022 and headquartered in the United States. The company was launched with a clear single-chain thesis: expand what is possible on Bitcoin by funding applications, infrastructure, and developer tooling built directly on the Bitcoin network. Unlike many crypto firms that spread capital across multiple chains, Trust Machines treats Bitcoin as the only settlement layer worth building on.
In late 2022, Trust Machines announced a $150 million funding round – one of the largest single raises in Bitcoin ecosystem history at that time. Backers included GV (Google Ventures), Breyer Capital, Union Square Ventures, and Digital Currency Group, among others. The raise was notable because it came during a broad market downturn, signaling strong institutional conviction in the Bitcoin-native application stack. The company deployed that capital toward building and funding projects across Bitcoin Layer 2s, Bitcoin DeFi, and Bitcoin-native NFTs – primarily through the Stacks blockchain, which enables smart contracts that settle on Bitcoin.
Notable investments
- Hiro Systems – developer tools and infrastructure for building on Bitcoin and Stacks. Hiro maintains the Clarity smart contract language toolchain and the Stacks explorer.
- ALEX – a decentralized exchange and DeFi protocol running on Stacks, offering swaps, lending, and launchpad services for Bitcoin-native assets.
- Gamma – an NFT marketplace and creator platform built on Stacks, focused on Bitcoin Ordinals and Stacks-based NFTs.
- LNSwap – a non-custodial swap protocol connecting the Lightning Network to Stacks assets.
Public information about the full portfolio breadth and individual deal sizes is limited. The company does not publish a comprehensive portfolio page as of early 2026.
Team
Muneeb Ali is the co-founder and CEO of Trust Machines. Ali is also the co-creator of Stacks (formerly Blockstack), the Bitcoin Layer 2 he helped launch in 2017. He holds a PhD in distributed systems from Princeton University. Ali has been one of the most prominent voices arguing that Bitcoin – not Ethereum or newer smart contract chains – should be the foundation of a decentralized internet. His technical background and long tenure in the Bitcoin ecosystem give Trust Machines credibility with both developers and institutional allocators. Information about other named managing partners or co-founders beyond Ali is not well-documented in public sources.
Recent activity
Through 2024 and into 2025, Trust Machines continued to focus on the sBTC initiative – a trust-minimized bridge bringing BTC liquidity onto the Stacks chain without custodians. sBTC represents a significant technical milestone for Bitcoin DeFi: it allows BTC holders to earn yield and interact with smart contracts while retaining exposure to native Bitcoin. Trust Machines backed several teams building on top of sBTC as the protocol moved toward mainnet readiness. The company also supported the broader Nakamoto upgrade for Stacks, which aimed to bring Bitcoin finality to Stacks transactions and improve throughput significantly.
Trust Machines occupies a niche that few other investors hold: a conviction-heavy, single-chain focus on Bitcoin at a time when most crypto capital chases multi-chain narratives. If the Bitcoin DeFi thesis matures – driven by Ordinals adoption, Lightning growth, and Layer 2 activity – Trust Machines is positioned early. The key risk is timeline: Bitcoin ecosystem development moves slower than EVM-compatible chains, and the $150 million in capital must find exits in a market where Bitcoin-native liquidity remains thin compared to Ethereum. Specific AUM figures beyond the initial raise are not publicly disclosed.