Over a period of ten months, starting from mid-December 2022, Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) saw its circulating coins decline by almost 23,000. As of today, there are 79,839 unique WBTC wallets. Remarkably, a significant 73.76% of WBTC is held by the top 100 wallets alone.
Fast forward to October 22, 2023: WBTC, which mirrors the value of Bitcoin (BTC) at a 1:1 ratio, is held by 79,839 separate wallets. There are currently 163,006 WBTC tokens in circulation, putting the project's valuation at approximately $4.88 billion. Since December 17, 2022, WBTC's circulation has shrunk by 12.31%, going down from 185,909 to 163,006.
The creation of the Wrapped Bitcoin initiative is attributed to a partnership between Bitgo, Kyber Network, and Ren (formerly known as Republic Protocol). This venture was introduced on the Ethereum blockchain in late January 2019. The process of creating and redeeming tokens is overseen by custodians, and those partaking must comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) standards.
When it comes to market cap, WBTC holds the 16th spot among the leading 20 cryptocurrencies. Data indicates that dominant wallets are controlled by major decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, including Aave, Compound, Arbitrum’s gateway, Polygon’s bridge, and Makerdao. The wallet with the most significant share, “0x9ff,” is labeled “Aave: aWBTC Token V2” and holds 10.67% of circulating WBTC.
The next in line, the “0xccF” address, is the second-largest holder and is associated with “Compound: cWBTC2 Token,” holding 9.84% of the circulating WBTC. Compound also dominates the third spot with the “0xc3d” wallet, possessing 7.96% of WBTC. Notably, every wallet in the top ten WBTC rankings is tied to a DeFi protocol, collectively holding 52% of the available wrapped bitcoin.
A striking 59.18% of the entire supply is with the top 20 WBTC addresses. The leading 50 wallets contain 68.09%, and the top 100 control a whopping 73.76%, equivalent to 120,230 WBTC. WBTC stands out as a trailblazer in the realm of wrapped cryptocurrencies and maintains its position as the most significant project in terms of BTC reserves.
However, in the Ethereum ecosystem, there's a prominent presence of wrapped or synthetic ether, which surpasses the current quantity of tokenized bitcoin.
