Bitcoins Are Being Tokenized Faster Than They’re Mined as DeFi Craze Continues

Aug 15, 2020 at 14:45 UTC

Daily WBTC and BTC issuance since August 9

Since Sunday, 1,043 more bitcoins were tokenized through Wrapped Bitcoin than were actually created by bitcoin miners as the Ethereum-based decentralized finance (DeFi) boom shows no signs of abating.

• About 900 bitcoins are mined per day, given the current issuance rate of 6.25 bitcoins minted per block and the target 10-minute block time.
• At last check, nearly 31,000 bitcoins have been tokenized on Ethereum, according to Dune Analytics, 75% of which were minted by Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).
• Ethereum’s supply of tokenized bitcoins hovered below 3,000 until mid May when the rate of new tokens shot up.
• The rate of bitcoin tokenization signals the surging demand to use bitcoin in the burgeoning network of Ethereum-based DeFi applications.
• “WBTC continues to exhibit strong growth as demand for bitcoin in DeFi has exploded,” said Kyle Davies, co-founder of Three Arrows Capital, in a private message with CoinDesk. “I expect this trend to continue,” he added.

WBTC and BTC issuance since August 9Source: Dune Analytics, Coin Metrics

• In July, Three Arrows Capital minted its tokenized bitcoins through BitGo, the company that helped spearhead Wrapped Bitcoin in 2019.
• Within a year, WBTC will be a “first class asset” in the decentralized finance ecosystem, predicted Three Arrows co-founder Su Zhu, “just as USDC and USDT are now.”

Read more about…

Tokenized BitcoinWrapped Bitcoin

Disclosure

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.