Statistics show over the course of 54 days, the number of wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) hosted on the Ethereum network has dropped by 40,156. This equates to a more than 18% redemption of the circulating supply of WBTC since November 27, 2022.
WBTC remains the largest operation in terms of Bitcoin custody despite recent redemptions
The Bitgo-backed Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) project has been officially operational since late January 2019 and has grown significantly since its launch. At the time of writing, it is the largest operation in terms of the number of bitcoin (BTC) stored to support the WBTC token value.
As of January 20, 2023, WBTC is the 19th largest crypto asset by market capitalization, valued at $21,278 per unit. WBTC’s market cap Friday afternoon Eastern Time was about $3.8 billion. According to the project’s website and transparency dashboard, at 15:00 Eastern Time on January 20, 2023, there were approximately 180,197 WBTC in circulation on the Ethereum chain.
Wrapped up the Bitcoin Transparency Dashboard on Friday at 3:00 PM Eastern Time, January 20, 2023.
The project also manages 99.89 WBTC hosted on the Tron blockchain network. The supply of ERC20-based WBTC tokens is significantly less than it was 54 days ago on November 27, 2022, when 220,353 WBTC ($16.4K per BTC) circulated on the Ethereum blockchain network. Ten months prior, on February 26, 2022, the number of WBTC in circulation was approximately 262,662 ($39.4K per BTC).
That means that over the last ten months, 31.39% of WBTC in circulation was removed from the total supply. More than half of this percentage, or 18.22%, of the WBTC supply was redeemed in the last 54 days, or 40,156 WBTC in total, since November 27, 2022.
While WBTC is the largest packaged version of bitcoin, Lido’s stake token STETH, a derivative of Ethereum, is the largest synthetic version of a top crypto asset in terms of market cap. However, STETH operates differently than Bitgo’s management by only holding BTC for the given amount issued.
While there are 180,197 WBTC in circulation today, roughly 180,205 BTC are backing the WBTC supply in Bitgo’s custody, according to the site’s dashboard. The infusions of wrapped or synthetic BTC tokens have followed the same trend as stablecoins, as the stablecoin economy has seen billions in redemptions over the past year.
What do you think about the WBTC project seeing a redemption of 18% of its circulating supply in the last 54 days? Share your thoughts on this topic in the comments section below.
Jamie Redman
Jamie Redman is the news editor at Bitcoin.com News and a financial technology journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
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