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Bitcoin's 10 Biggest Moments in 2020

## What Is Wrapped Bitcoin [WBTC]?

[Wrapped Bitcoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-wrapped-bitcoin) is a tokenized version of [Bitcoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/) (BTC) that runs on the [Ethereum](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/) (ETH) blockchain.

WBTC is compliant with [ERC-20](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/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](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-decentralized-finance)) 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 at all times 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.

## How Are Wrapped Bitcoin Created?

The creation of Wrapped Bitcoin brings the world's leading cryptocurrency [Bitcoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/) into the world of Ethereum's [DeFi](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/defi) ecosystem. The WBTC token adheres to the [ERC-20](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/erc-20) token standard, with tokens created for those who want to convert BTC into WBTC.

All to-be-converted BTC is held by a custodian, who takes part in the actual minting and burning of Ethereum-based tokens. When WBTCs are burned, the user can reclaim their BTC balance from the custodian. During mining, users send BTC to the custodian for storage and receive an equivalent in WBTC tokens. BitGo is the biggest custodian for Wrapped Bitcoin, and they will mine a certain number of WBTC and send them to the merchant's Ethereum address.

The user who wants to swap between wBTC and BTC performs a trade — through a centralized exchange or atomic swap on a decentralized exchange — to move funds to the merchant. Once finalized, the user can use their BTC/wBTC as they see fit. If WBTC is converted to BTC, the associated Wrapped Bitcoin balance will be destroyed through a burn transaction.

The WBTC [DAO](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-autonomous-organizations-dao) consists of governing members who decide on significant upgrades and changes to the protocol. Additionally, these members can serve as merchants or custodians managing BTC assets. 


## What Can You Do With WBTC?

As Wrapped Bitcoin tokens adhere to the ERC-20 token standard, one can use them across the broader Ethereum ecosystem. That includes trading them on decentralized exchanges  — like [Uniswap](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/uniswap/), [1Inch](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/1inch/), [Sushiswap](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/sushiswap/) — and exploring decentralized finance opportunities through protocols and platforms supporting WBTC. 

DeFi opportunities for WBTC range from lending and borrowing to [yield farming](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/yield-farming), token swapping and [liquidity pools](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/liquidity-pool). Various protocols and platforms support Wrapped Bitcoin, including [Aave](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/aave/), [Balancer](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/balancer/), [Compound](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/compound/), [MakerDAO](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/maker/). Some of these providers may issue platform-native governance tokens as an extra incentive.

Using WBTC as colateral for a crypto-backed loan can be a significant option for businesses. Additionally WBTC holders can earn interest from supplying liquidity, although the APY will be relatively low.

Another option for WBTC is to engage in margin trading, where Wrapped Bitcoin is used to margin trade [Ethereum](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/), stablecoins and other ERC-20 tokens. Users deploy WBTC to enhance fund security while trading. That process is fully non-custodial and powered by smart contract technology.

### Who Are the Founders of Wrapped Bitcoin?

The Wrapped Tokens project, of which WBTC is a part, wasn’t founded by individuals but is rather a joint project of three organizations: BitGo, Kyber Network and [Ren](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/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 — the entity that 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?

By virtue of being 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 financial decentralized 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 having to run two separate nodes for ETH and BTC networks, they can support WBTC operations with just an Ethereum node.

Finally, Ethereum blockchain’s faster average blocktime — 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](https://twitter.com/ArcaneResearch/status/1473998005477036040), while Bitcoin balance on crypto exchanges has fallen by roughly 1.2%, Bitcoin held in corporate treasuries, exchange-traded investment vehicles and on Ethereum has risen by 0.51%, 0.69% and 0.98% respectively. There is currently [$10.9B worth of WBTC](https://wbtc.network/dashboard/order-book) on the Ethereum network, as of February 2022. Besides Ethereum, WBTC is also available on the [Tron blockchain](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/tron/), with a total value of $4.1M worth of Bitcoin.

#### Related Pages:

Learn more about other Bitcoin-pegged tokens on the Ethereum network, like [renBTC](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/renbtc/) and [HBTC](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/huobi-btc/).

Check out our educational deep dive into how [Ren](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/bringing-bitcoin-to-defi-a-complete-beginners-deep-dive-into-renvm) is bringing Bitcoin to DeFi.

CMC Alexandria has a basic into to Wrapped Bitcoin right [here](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-wrapped-bitcoin).


#### How Many Wrapped Bitcoin [WBTC] Coins Are There in Circulation?

There is no predetermined schedule of WBTC issuance. Instead, WBTC is automatically minted or burned whenever users purchase or sell their tokens for Bitcoin via a system of merchants and custodians.

Because Wrapped Bitcoin is always backed by Bitcoin at a 1:1 ratio, the number of tokens in circulation is directly dependent on the amount of Bitcoin reserves in the WBTC network. As of October 2020, that number was just over 94,000 tokens, worth approximately $1 billion in total.


### How Is the Wrapped Bitcoin Network Secured?

WBTC tokens are secured by the parent blockchain they run on — Ethereum. In turn, ETH is protected by the Ethash [proof-of-work](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/proof-of-work-vs-proof-of-stake) function, a representative of the Keccak family of hash functions.


### Where Can You Buy Wrapped Bitcoin [WBTC]?

You can buy WBTC on several exchanges, both centralized and decentralized ones, which serve as merchants on the Wrapped Bitcoin network. Some of the major ones include:



*   [Uniswap](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/uniswap-v2/)
*   [Binance](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/binance/)
*   [OKEx](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/okex/)
*   [Huobi Global](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/huobi-global/)
*   [Kyber Network](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/kyber-network/)

Aave-Ethereum

Aave-Polygon

Wrapped Bitcoin

Ledger

Coinbase

Safepal

HyperPay

Trust Wallet

MetaMask

SolFlare

Backpack

Phantom

Welcome to Wrapped Bitcoin's Community channel aggregated by CoinMarketCap.

Ethereum

Shiba Inu

Chainlink

Uniswap

Pepe

Bitget Token

Maker

Worldcoin

JasmyCoin

SingularityNET

Render

Axie Infinity

Fetch.ai

Immutable

Wormhole

Musk Dao

Tipcoin

Sturdy

Brainers

EscoinToken

UNUS SED LEO

Bitcoin SV (BSV) emerged following a hard fork of the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) blockchain in 2018, which had in turn forked from the BTC blockchain a year earlier following the blocksize wars.

BSV claims to fulfill the original vision of the Bitcoin protocol and design as described in Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper, early Bitcoin client software and known Satoshi writings. BSV aims to offer scalability and stability in line with the original description of Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, as well as deliver a distributed data network that can support enterprise-level advanced blockchain applications.

To this end, it has removed artificial block size limits and re-enabled Script commands and other technical capabilities which had been historically disabled or restricted by the protocol developers of the BTC blockchain. This purportedly allows the network to process tens of thousands of transactions per second while maintaining extremely low transaction fees for micropayments, in addition to offering advanced capabilities such as tokens, smart contracts, computation and other data use cases.

The BSV network claims to be unique in its capacity for unbounded on-chain scaling while also being more aligned with the original design of Bitcoin than any other blockchain.

Bitcoin SV

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that aims to become sound global money with fast payments, micro fees, privacy and larger block size. As a permissionless, decentralized cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Cash requires no trusted third parties.

Bitcoin Cash was created as an alternative to the first and most valuable cryptocurrency — Bitcoin (BTC). In 2017, BCH developers modified the BTC code, releasing their software version and a full-fledged competitive product, which split Bitcoin into two blockchains: Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash is a result of a hard fork in the blockchain due to differences in the community over Bitcoin scaling and the SegWit upgrade. Moreover, another hard fork, which divided Bitcoin Cash into two parts, Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV, took place in the fall of 2018.

The scaling debate involved two sides: small block supporters opposed increasing block size as it could lead to blockchain centralization and vulnerability by making it harder to host full nodes. Large block supporters, however, advocated for a faster solution, concerned that rising transaction fees could hinder growth.

Bitcoin Cash

Ethereum Classic (ETC) is the original Ethereum (ETH) blockchain that launched in July 2015. Its main function is as a smart contract network, with the ability to host and support decentralized applications (DApps). Its native token is ETC.

Since its launch, Ethereum Classic has sought to differentiate itself from Ethereum, with the two networks’ technical roadmap diverging further and further from each other with time.

Ethereum Classic first set out to preserve the integrity of the existing Ethereum blockchain after a major hacking event led to the theft of 3.6 million ETH.

Ethereum Classic

Monero was launched in 2014, and its goal is simple: to allow transactions to take place privately and with anonymity. Even though it’s commonly thought that BTC can conceal a person’s identity, it’s often easy to trace payments back to their original source because blockchains are transparent. On the other hand, XMR is designed to obscure senders and recipients alike through the use of advanced cryptography.

The team behind Monero say privacy and security are their biggest priorities, with ease of use and efficiency coming second. It aims to provide protection to all users — irrespective of how technologically competent they are.

Overall, XMR aims to allow payments to be made quickly and inexpensively without fear of censorship.

Monero

Maker (MKR) is the governance token of the MakerDAO and Maker Protocol — respectively a decentralized organization and a software platform, both based on the Ethereum blockchain — that allows users to issue and manage the DAI stablecoin.

Initially conceived in 2015 and fully launched in December 2017, Maker is a project whose task is to operate DAI, a community-managed decentralized cryptocurrency with a stable value soft-pegged to the US dollar.

MKR tokens act as a kind of voting share for the organization that manages DAI; while they do not pay dividends to their holders, they do give the holders voting rights over the development of Maker Protocol and are expected to appreciate in value in accordance with the success of DAI itself.

The Maker ecosystem is one of the earliest projects on the decentralized finance (DeFi) scene: the industry that seeks to build decentralized financial products on top of smart-contract-enabled blockchains, such as Ethereum.

Yearn.finance is an aggregator service for decentralized finance (DeFi) investors, using automation to allow them to maximize profits from yield farming.

Its goal is to simplify the ever-expanding DeFi space for investors who are not technically minded or who wish to interact in a less committal manner than serious traders.

Launched in February 2020, the service, formerly known as iEarn, has seen huge growth in recent months as new products debuted and developers released in-house token YFI.

yearn.finance

Bitcoin Gold was founded in 2017 to become a user-friendly alternative to Bitcoin. The BTG network aims to combine the security and sturdiness of the Bitcoin blockchain and its characteristics with the opportunity for experimentation and development.

BTG enhances and extends the crypto space with a blockchain closely compatible with Bitcoin but without using resources like Bitcoin hash power or vying for the "real Bitcoin" title. The company aims to present a coin with the implementation capabilities of Bitcoin, however, expanding on the opportunities for DeFi and DApp developers to use the coin.

Bitcoin Gold

Zcash is a decentralized cryptocurrency focused on privacy and anonymity. It uses the zk-SNARK zero-knowledge proof technology that allows nodes on the network to verify transactions without revealing any sensitive information about those transactions.

Contrary to a common misunderstanding, the majority of cryptocurrencies on the market, including Bitcoin (BTC), are not anonymous, but rather pseudonymous; while they do not explicitly reveal the identities of their users, each user has their own public address or addresses which can be traced back to them via the methods of data science and blockchain forensics.

Zcash transactions, on the other hand, still have to be relayed via a public blockchain, but unlike pseudonymous cryptocurrencies, ZEC transactions by default do not reveal the sending and receiving addresses or the amount being sent. There is an option, however, to reveal this data for the purposes of auditing or regulatory compliance.

Zcash was first released on October 28, 2016, and it was originally based on Bitcoin’s codebase.

Zcash

OKB is a cryptocurrency released by the OK Blockchain Foundation and Maltese crypto exchange, OKEx. The exchange is one of the largest in the world andcurrently ranks third in liquidity, fourth in trading volume, and provides a wide selection of trading pairs. OKEx is similar in many aspects to the cryptocurrency exchange giantBinance, but there are a few key differences. The OKEx platform has its owncloud mining service, and the company has a more focused reach in providing options trading for users. Meanwhile, Binance strives to offer a broad range of crypto services globally.

OKB is the OKEx utility token that enables users to access the crypto exchange's special features. The coin is used to calculate and pay trading fees, grant users access to voting and governance on the platform, and reward users for holding OKB.

OKEx has become a world-leading trading floor since its launch in 2017. The platform launched in the spring of 2017 and emerged as an offshoot from the original OKCoin platform (operating since 2013 in China). OKCoin now focuses on exchanging fiat for crypto, while OKEx focuses on crypto trading with a built-inAPI for algorithmic trading. The exchange also gives users access to a multi-currency wallet and functions formargin trading.

Decred is Money Evolved.

By combining battle tested Proof-of-Work with an innovative take on Proof-of-Stake that places coin holders in charge of shaping the future, Decred is able to adapt to challenges and innovate at a rapid pace. You acquire influence in Decred by putting “skin in the game”.

Decred’s security, privacy, scalability, and decentralized treasury empower stakeholders and provides them with the tools needed to enhance their financial sovereignty.

Decred

Huobi Token (HT) is the native token of the cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global. It is a decentralized digital asset based on the Ethereum blockchain and is ERC-20 compliant. HT’s value is in part reliant upon the reputation of the Huobi crypto exchange, yet other factors also have an impact.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Huobi Token.

Huobi Token is a relatively young project. It first launched in January 2018, hot on the heels of the release of a native token on rival crypto exchange Binance. Having its own token allows Huobi to build a flexible marketing strategy in order to attract new users and further grow its platform.

One key function of the token is to reduce commissions for trading operations on the exchange, which are usually paid from users' wallets. Yet the token has much more to offer. Using HT, users can purchase monthly VIP-status plans to receive discounts on transaction fees. Token holders have the right to vote on exchange decisions, can receive crypto rewards for seasonal buybacks, and also get early access to special events. HT holders can, at any point, trade the token for other cryptocurrencies.

Huobi Token

Uniswap is a popular decentralized trading protocol, known for its role in facilitating automated trading of decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens.

An example of an automated market maker (AMM), Uniswap launched in November 2018, but has gained considerable popularity this year thanks to the DeFi phenomenon and associated surge in token trading.

Uniswap aims to keep token trading automated and completely open to anyone who holds tokens, while improving the efficiency of trading versus that on traditional exchanges.

Uniswap creates more efficiency by solving liquidity issues with automated solutions, avoiding the problems which plagued the first decentralized exchanges.

In September 2020, Uniswap went a step further by creating and awarding its own governance token, UNI, to past users of the protocol. This added both profitability potential and the ability for users to shape its future — an attractive aspect of decentralized entities.

The EOS Network is an open-source blockchain platform that prioritizes high performance, flexibility, security, and developer experience. As a third-generation blockchain platform powered by the EOS virtual machine, EOS has an extensible WebAssembly engine for deterministic execution of near fee-less transactions.

EOS is the market's most scalable, divisible, and programmable digital currency. EOS is a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) network where stakeholders have the authority to select node operators. Due to the decentralized nature of the token distribution on EOS, power doesn't reside in the hands of block miners, but rather all parties involved in the EOS Network.

The EOS Network is attractive because of its technology and community. It allows developers to build projects that other blockchains cannot support. The network is straightforward and has multiple tools and educational resources to help users acclimate to the blockchain.

Litecoin (LTC) is a cryptocurrency that was designed to provide fast, secure and low-cost payments by leveraging the unique properties of blockchain technology.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Litecoin.

The cryptocurrency was created based on the Bitcoin (BTC) protocol, but it differs in terms of the hashing algorithm used, hard cap, block transaction times and a few other factors. Litecoin has a block time of just 2.5 minutes and extremely low transaction fees, making it suitable for micro-transactions and point-of-sale payments.

Litecoin was released via an open-source client on GitHub on Oct. 7, 2011, and the Litecoin Network went live five days later on Oct. 13, 2011. Since then, it has exploded in both usage and acceptance among merchants and has counted among the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization for most of its existence.

The cryptocurrency was created by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee, who intended Litecoin to be a "lite version of Bitcoin," in that it features many of the same properties as Bitcoin—albeit lighter in weight.

Litecoin

Dash is an open-source blockchain and cryptocurrency focused on offering a fast, cheap global payments network that is decentralized in nature. According to the project's white paper, Dash seeks to improve upon Bitcoin (BTC) by providing stronger privacy and faster transactions.

Dash, whose name comes from "digital cash," was launched in January 2014 as a fork of Litecoin (LTC). Since going live, Dash has grown to include features such as a two-tier network with incentivized nodes, including "masternodes," and decentralized project governance; InstantSend, which allows for instantly settled payments; ChainLocks, which makes the Dash blockchain instantly immutable; and PrivateSend, which offers additional optional privacy for transactions.

Dash

Compound is a DeFi lending protocol that allows users to earn interest on their cryptocurrencies by depositing them into one of several pools supported by the platform.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Compound.

When a user deposits tokens to a Compound pool, they receive cTokens in return. These cTokens represent the individual’s stake in the pool and can be used to redeem the underlying cryptocurrency initially deposited into the pool at any time. For example, by depositing ETH into a pool, you will receive cETH in return. Over time, the exchange rate of these cTokens to the underlying asset increases, which means you can redeem them for more of the underlying asset than you initially put in — this is how the interest is distributed.

On the flip side, borrowers can take a secured loan from any Compound pool by depositing collateral. The maximum loan-to-value (LTV) ratio varies based on the collateral asset, but currently ranges from 50 to 75%. The interest rate paid varies by borrowed asset and borrowers can face automatic liquidation if their collateral falls below a specific maintenance threshold.

Since the launch of the Compound mainnet in September 2018, the platform has skyrocketed in popularity, and recently passed more than $800 million in total locked value.

Compound

Developed by leading Korean IT company Kakao, Klaytn is a global Layer 1 public blockchain designed to power tomorrow’s on-chain world. With the lowest transaction latency amongst leading blockchains, enterprise-grade reliability, and a developer-friendly environment, Klaytn provides a seamless experience for users and developers that is second to none. Since its launch in June 2019, Klaytn has been accelerating blockchain mass adoption through a broad array of use cases from DeFi to real-world assets, entertainment and gaming, and even the Bank of Korea’s CBDC pilot project. Today, it is one of the only globally competitive Web 3.0 ecosystems developed in South Korea, generating more than 1 billion transactions from over 300 decentralized applications.

Klaytn

Aave

TRON (TRX) is a decentralized blockchain-based operating system developed by the Tron Foundation and launched in 2017. Originally TRX tokens were ERC-20-based tokens deployed on Ethereum, but a year later they were moved to their own network.

Initially, the project was created with the aim of providing full ownership rights to makers of digital content. The main goal is to help content creators (who receive only a small part of the income) and encourage them with more rewards for their work. How: invite content consumers to reward content makers directly (without intermediaries like YouTube, Facebook or Apple).

The TRON software supports smart contracts, various kinds of blockchain systems, and decentralized applications aka dApps. The cryptocurrency platform uses a transaction model similar to Bitcoin (BTC), namely UTXO. Transactions take place in a public ledger, where users can track the history of operations.

Therefore, the platform was built to create a decentralized Internet and serves as a tool for developers to create dApps, acting as an alternative to Ethereum. Anyone can create dApps on the TRON network, offer content, and in return receive digital assets as compensation for their efforts. The ability to create content and share it openly without hesitation regarding transaction fees is an undeniable advantage of TRON.