Over $1 billion worth of bitcoin has been tokenized on Ethereum as the total supply of tokenized bitcoin (BTC) passed 92,600 on Thursday, or 0.42% of the total BTC supply. In January, less than 1,200 BTC were tokenized worth less than $7 million.
- Wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), the largest tokenized bitcoin project, has minted over 60,500 tokenized BTC since its launch in early 2019, representing over 65% of the total tokenized BTC supply.
- “Huge buying demand” over the counter is one reason for the rapid increase in supply of tokenized BTC, according to Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX and co-founder of Alameda Research, the exchange’s sister company.
- OTC demand for WBTC started at FTX with the advent of decentralized finance’s yield farming craze, said Bankman-Fried. Demand continued to grow as the total value held in DeFi protocols increased.
- Nearly 70% of all WBTC minted in August were claimed by Alameda Research, as CoinDesk previously reported.
- RenBTC, the second largest tokenized bitcoin project, has issued 22,000 tokenized bitcoins since May, according to data queried on Dune Analytics.
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