Coinbase Adds Support for Wrapped Bitcoin as Supply Tops $1.2 Billion

On Monday, Oct. 19, Coinbase Pro will begin accepting inbound transfers of wrapped Bitcoin to the exchange, according to an Oct. 15 blog post. Trading will begin the following day if liquidity conditions are met, it added. The announcement added that once a sufficient supply of wBTC is established, trading will be enabled on two pairs — WBTC/USD and WBTC/BTC.

On Monday October 19, our WBTC-USD and WBTC-BTC order books will enter transfer-only mode, accepting inbound transfers of WBTC in supported regions. Orders cannot be placed or filled. Trading will begin on or after 9AM (PT) Tuesday October 20, if liquidity conditions are met.

— Coinbase Exchange 🛡️ (@CoinbaseExch) October 15, 2020

Wrapped Bitcoin is a tokenized version of BTC for use with ERC-20-based protocols and DApps. It has exploded in popularity this year with the DeFi boom which has yielded a number of liquidity mining opportunities for Bitcoin holders. Tokenizing Bitcoin keeps it pegged to the original asset so holders can get exposure to DeFi without selling their stash. Coinbase, which recently added Ethereum Layer 2 solutions to its wallet, has been aggressively adding DeFi tokens over the past couple of months to expand its listings. These now include Balancer, Ren, Uniswap, Yearn Finance, Loopring, UMA, Celo, Band, Compound, and Maker.

Wrapped Bitcoin Tops $1.2 Billion

The total amount of wBTC has hit another all-time high this week topping 105,000 BTC worth, an estimated $1.2 billion at today’s prices. The chart has gone parabolic since July, according to btconethereum.com.

There has been a 1,100% increase in wrapped Bitcoin, over the past three and a half months as holders jump aboard the DeFi train seeking yields that would not be possible with native Bitcoin. This monumental surge has pushed wBTC up to third in terms of total value locked, according to DeFi Pulse, which recently launched a DeFi risk index. There is now more value locked in tokenized Bitcoin than DeFi giants Aave, Curve, Compound, and Yearn, which have all seen a slight decline in collateral, recently.

Total Tokenized BTC at Record Levels

Wrapped Bitcoin is just one flavor of tokenized BTC, and the total for all versions is also at a peak of $1.64 billion. It is approaching 0.8% of the total circulating supply which doesn’t sound much but does show the demand for DeFi, even for Bitcoiners. Ren is another protocol that has tokenized Bitcoin and its renBTC is the second most popular version with almost 27,000 BTC, or $310 million, tokenized using this method. There are several other versions also including HBTC, sBTC, imBTC, TBTC, and pBTC, but they all essentially do the same thing – bring Bitcoin to DeFi.