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Wrapped Bitcoin [WBTC] Things You Need To Know Before Investing

What Is Wrapped Bitcoin [WBTC]?

Wrapped Bitcoin [WBTC] is a tokenized version of Bitcoin (BTC) that runs on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain.

WBTC is compliant with ERC-20 — the basic compatibility standard of the Ethereum blockchain — allowing it to be fully integrated into the latter’s ecosystem of decentralized exchanges, crypto lending services, prediction markets and other ERC-20-enabled decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.

WBTC is also backed by Bitcoin at a 1:1 ratio via a network of automatically monitored merchants and custodians, ensuring that its price is pegged to Bitcoin and allows users to transfer liquidity between the BTC and the ETH networks in a decentralized and autonomous manner.

Wrapped Bitcoin was first announced on October 26, 2018, and officially launched on January 31, 2019.

Who Are the Founders of Wrapped Bitcoin?

The Wrapped Tokens project, of which WBTC is a part, wasn’t founded by individuals but is a joint project of three organizations: BitGo, Kyber Network and Ren.

BitGo, co-founded in 2013 by American computer scientist and entrepreneur Mike Belshe, is an institutional digital asset custody, trading and financial services firm. In addition to being one of the developers of WBTC, BitGo also serves as its original custodian. This entity holds WBTC tokens and the keys needed to mint more of them.

Kyber Network is an on-blockchain liquidity protocol that enables the integration of different cryptocurrency tokens and DeFi applications. It was founded in 2017 by Loi Luu, Victor Tran and Yaron Velner and is based in Singapore. Along with Ren, Kyber Network has helped create WBTC and still serves as a merchant on its network — the institution that mints and burns WBTC tokens to maintain the 1:1 ratio of tokens to BTC reserves.

Similarly to Kyber, Ren is a company focused on cross-blockchain integration of cryptocurrency assets and DeFi applications via solutions such as RenBridge, RenVM and others. It was founded in 2017 by Taiyang Zhang and Loong Wang.

What Makes Wrapped Bitcoin Unique?

Under is the oldest and largest cryptocurrency on the market, Bitcoin can boast a massive user base and a liquidity pool of several dozen billion dollars. However, its blockchain functionality is relatively basic by modern standards.

Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum was built from the ground up to support more advanced use cases by utilizing the technology of smart contracts, giving rise to an entire industry dubbed “decentralized finance.”

Ethereum and products derived from it offer their users such advanced financial instruments as lending and insurance, which do not rely on trusted intermediaries.

By “wrapping” BTC in the ERC-20 standard, WBTC enables full integration of a Bitcoin-like asset into this advanced environment of decentralized financial applications, bringing along the immense liquidity associated with the BTC market.

In addition, Wrapped Bitcoin makes the job significantly easier for exchanges, wallets and payment services that work with Ethereum. Instead of running two separate nodes for ETH and BTC networks, they can support WBTC operations with just an Ethereum node.

Finally, the Ethereum blockchain’s faster average block time — about 15 seconds vs 10 minutes respectively — increases the speed with which WBTC can be transacted, compared to actual bitcoins.

Wrapped Bitcoin’s Flow into Ethereum Network

Part of Bitcoin’s circulating supply has flowed into the Ethereum Network, corporate treasuries and exchange-traded investment products in the form of wrapped BTC (WBTC) in 2021. According to Arcane Research, while Bitcoin balance on crypto exchanges has fallen by roughly 1.2%, Bitcoin held in corporate treasuries, exchange-traded investment vehicles, and Ethereum has risen by 0.51%, 0.69%, and 0.98%, respectively. There is currently $10.9B worth of WBTC on the Ethereum network as of February 2022. Besides Ethereum, WBTC is also available on the Tron blockchain, with $4.1M worth of Bitcoin.

Also Read: Cronos (CRO) Thing You Need To Know Before Investment

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Riya Kapoor

Riya Kapoor writes about lifestyle, entertainment, news and gadgets. She has been in this industry for almost 4 years now. She is a graduate from Delhi University with English Hons and had deep connection with writing since her childhood.

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