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## 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/)

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

Pepe

Uniswap

Immutable

Gala

Lido DAO

Worldcoin

Wormhole

Render

The Graph

Fetch.ai

Quant

SingularityNET

ClearDAO

PlasticHero

QToken

Lybra Finance

Truebit

DAI is an Ethereum-based stablecoin (stable-price cryptocurrency) whose issuance and development is managed by the Maker Protocol and the MakerDAO decentralized autonomous organization.

The price of DAI is soft-pegged to the U.S. dollar and is collateralized by a mix of other cryptocurrencies that are deposited into smart-contract vaults every time new DAI is minted.

It is important to differentiate between Multi-Collateral DAI and Single-Collateral DAI (SAI), an earlier version of the token that could only be collateralized by a single cryptocurrency; SAI also doesn’t support the DAI Savings Rate, which allows users to earn savings by holding DAI tokens.

Multi-Collateral DAI was launched in November 2019.

TUSD is the first digital asset with live on-chain attestations by independent third-party institutions and is backed 1:1 with the U.S. dollar (USD). So far, it has been listed on more than 100 trading platforms such as Binance and Huobi and is live on 12 mainstream public chains, including Ethereum, TRON, Avalanche, BSC, Fantom, and Polygon.

TrueUSD is attested to in real-time by an independent, industry-specialized accounting firm in the U.S., to ensure the 1:1 ratio of its USD reserve to the circulating token supply and the 100% collateral rate. With the integration of Chainlink PoR, TrueUSD becomes the first USD-Backed stablecoin to secure minting and further ensure transparency and reliability. Users can access the relevant data via the official website tusd.io at any time. TUSD is granted statutory status as authorized digital currency and medium of exchange in the Commonwealth of Dominica, a country in the Caribbean, effective on October 7th 2022.

TrueUSD

UNUS SED LEO

Founded in September of 2018, Pax Dollar is a flat-collateralized stablecoin. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are designed to minimize the volatility of the price of the stablecoin, relative to a certain stable asset or a basket of assets.

A stablecoin can be pegged to a cryptocurrency or flat money. In some cases, it can even be traded for commodities. Pax Dollar offers the advantage of transacting with blockchain assets through minimized price risk. The Pax Dollar tokens (USDP) are issued asERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain and are collateralized 1:1 through the USD held in Paxos-owned US bank accounts.

Pax Dollar

Binance USD (BUSD) is a 1:1 USD-backed stable coin issued by Binance (in partnership with Paxos), Approved and regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), The BUSD Monthly Audit Report can be viewed from the official website. Launched on 5 Sep 2019, BUSD aims to meld the stability of the dollar with blockchain technology. It is a digital fiat currency, issued as ERC-20 and supports BEP-2.

BUSD

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

USDC is a stablecoin that is pegged to the U.S. dollar on a 1:1 basis. Every unit of this cryptocurrency in circulation is backed up by $1 that is held in reserve, in a mix of cash and short-term U.S. Treasury bonds. The Centre consortium, which is behind this asset, says USDC is issued by regulated financial institutions.

The stablecoin originally launched on a limited basis in September 2018. Put simply, USDC’s mantra is “digital money for the digital age” — and the stablecoin is designed for a world where cashless transactions are becoming more common.

Several use cases have been unveiled for the USDC. As well as providing a safe haven for crypto traders in times of volatility, those behind the stablecoin say it can also allow businesses to accept payments in digital assets, and shake up an array of sectors including decentralized finance and gaming.

Overall, the goal is to create an ecosystem where USDC is accepted by as many wallets, exchanges, service providers and dApps as possible.

USDC

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

The Gemini Trust Company (Gemini) is a digital currency exchange and custodian that allows you to buy, sell and store digital assets, founded in February of 2014. The GUSD is created by the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini.

The company received approval from the New York Department of Financial Services or NYDFS to launch the stablecoin in September of 2018. The Gemini Trust Company holds USD deposits that correspond to the number of tokens that are in circulation.

When it comes to the Gemini Dollar itself, it is an ERC-20 token that is built on the Ethereum network and has smart contracts that are audited by the security company Trail of Bits Inc.

This dollar is intended to bridge the divide between traditional finance and the crypto industry, due to the fact that this specific stablecoin is completely regulated by the NYDFS.

Gemini Dollar

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

USDD is a stablecoin issued by the TRON DAO Reserve. It’s pegged to the value of the US dollar and aims to provide a reliable, decentralized cryptocurrency for blockchain transactions. USDD can be used for payments, trading, staking and as a value store.

USDD is backed by a number of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and TRON. To ensure stability and security, the reserve is over-collateralized, meaning that it holds more assets than the amount of USDD currently in circulation.

USDD

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

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.

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.

Maker

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

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

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

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.

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.