BitGo Launches Wrapped Bitcoin, Ether on Tron Blockchain

BitGo’s Ethereum-based tokenized bitcoin project, Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), has expanded to its second blockchain, Tron. The crypto custodian has also launched Wrapped Ether (WETH) on Tron as well.

• BitGo clients are already minting WBTC and WETH as TRC-20 tokens on Tron, according to the company's public orderbooks.
• After a few test mints executed by BitGo in mid-December, nearly 100 BTC (roughly $3.4 million at current prices) have been wrapped and minted as TRC-20 WBTC tokens by Alameda Research and CoinList.
• Alameda also minted 1 WETH on Tron Tuesday morning. The trading firm's TRC-20 WBTC and WETH mints were made to meet over-the-counter (OTC) client demand and test the new product, Alameda's Ryan Salame told CoinDesk.
• BitGo announced a partnership with Tron in September with plans to bring WBTC and WETH to the Justin Sun-founded network, per CoinDesk's prior reporting. Now the project is fully operational.
• "Our blossoming alliance with BitGo has finally brought cross-chain solutions like WBTC and WETH to fruition," Sun said in a statement.

• The supply of ERC-20 WBTC, BitGo's original tokenized bitcoin project, saw nearly parabolic growth through the second half of 2020, peaking at over 124,000 BTC wrapped on Ethereum in late November. As the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has cooled off, however, the supply of ERC-20 WBTC has dipped to its current level of nearly 110,000 tokens.
• In September, the total value of all Ethereum-based tokenized bitcoin projects passed $1 billion for the first time.
• At current prices, BitGo alone has tokenized $3.8 billion worth of bitcoin on the Ethereum and Tron blockchains.