Ten decentralized finance protocols govern over 52% of WBTC in circulation

As of October 22, 2023, there are 79,839 individual wallets containing WBTC, a token pegged 1:1 to Bitcoin (BTC). WBTC tokens in circulation total 163,006, valuing the project at $4.88 billion. Since December 17, 2022, there has been a 12.31% reduction in the circulating supply of WBTC, from 185,909 WBTC to the current 163,006 WBTC.

The inception of the Wrapped Bitcoin project is attributed to a collaboration between Bitgo, Kyber Network, and Ren (formerly known as Republic Protocol). It made its debut on the Ethereum blockchain in late January 2019. The minting and redemption processes are facilitated by custodians, and participants using these two processes must comply with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations and know your customer (KYC).

In terms of market capitalization, WBTC ranks 16th among the top 20 cryptocurrencies. The data reveals that the dominant addresses are governed by major decentralized finance (defi) entities such as Aave, Compound, Arbitrum gateway, Polygon bridge, and Makerdao. The largest wallet, “0x9ff”, is designated as “Aave: aWBTC Token V2” and holds 10.67% of WBTC in circulation.

Following closely, the address “0xccF” is the second largest holder, identified as “Composite: cWBTC2 Token”, and controls 9.84% of the WBTC in circulation. Compound also controls the third largest wallet “0xc3d” with 7.96% of the WBTC supply. Interestingly, each of the top ten WBTC accounts is a defi protocol, which together oversees 52% of packaged bitcoins in circulation.

WBTC’s elite 20 addresses hold a staggering 59.18% of the total supply, while the top 50 account for 68.09%. Approximately 73.76% of WBTC in circulation, totaling 120,230 WBTC, is held by the top 100 holders. WBTC is not only a pioneer in the wrapped cryptographic domain, but it also remains the largest wrapped project related to BTC reserves.

In the Ethereum universe, however, there is a notable prevalence of encapsulated or synthetic ether that is much higher compared to the current count of tokenized bitcoins.