Bitcoin’s expansion beyond its native blockchain has accelerated through wrapped and synthetic versions of BTC issued on other networks. According to the report, the total amount of bitcoin-pegged tokens hosted on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) was approaching 300,000 BTC by mid-May, representing a combined value of more than $12.8 billion at the time. The figures underscore how alternative networks, particularly Ethereum and BSC, had become the dominant venues for putting bitcoin to work in decentralized finance.
Ethereum Leads the Market for Bitcoin-Pegged Assets
Among all networks supporting tokenized bitcoin, Ethereum remained the largest by a wide margin. Data cited from Dune Analytics showed that 225,975 BTC had been bridged to Ethereum through a range of tokenized products. These included WBTC (178,865 BTC), HBTC (31,906 BTC), RENBTC (12,009 BTC), IMBTC (1,327 BTC), SBTC (1,149 BTC), TBTC (1,039 BTC), and PBTC (648 BTC).
The clear leader was Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), which alone accounted for more than $7 billion in value based on bitcoin’s exchange rate at the time. The report also noted that WBTC ranked among the largest crypto assets by market capitalization. Its underlying collateral was maintained by custodian Bitgo, making it one of the best-known examples of tokenized BTC infrastructure in the market.
Ethereum’s lead was not just about issuance volume. The network’s mature decentralized finance ecosystem gave tokenized bitcoin multiple use cases, including lending, trading, liquidity provision, and collateralization. That broad utility appears to have helped Ethereum become the primary destination for users seeking to deploy BTC in smart contract-based applications.
BSC Emerges as a Major Competitor Through BTCB
While Ethereum dominated in aggregate bitcoin-pegged supply, Binance Smart Chain had already become a major challenger thanks to BTCB, Binance’s bitcoin-backed asset on BSC. According to market data referenced in the article, 54,598.02 BTCB were circulating on BSC at the time, implying a fully diluted valuation of more than $2 billion. During the same trading day, BTCB reportedly generated around $159 million in 24-hour trading volume.
The report also highlighted a discrepancy between data providers. While coinmarketcap.com listed one set of circulating numbers, bscan.com showed 80,501 BTCB in total and a circulating supply of 73,105.515028 BTCB. If the bscan.com figures were used, the combined total of bitcoin-pegged tokens across Ethereum and BSC rose to 299,080 BTC, bringing the market even closer to the symbolic 300,000 BTC threshold.
This difference in reporting did not change the broader conclusion: BSC had become the second major hub for tokenized bitcoin, and its scale was large enough to rival many standalone blockchain ecosystems.
Lightning, Liquid, and RSK Remain Far Smaller
The article contrasted Ethereum and BSC with other bitcoin-related scaling and sidechain solutions. On the Lightning Network, the total value locked stood at roughly 1,300 BTC, worth about $56.3 million at the time. The RSK smart contract ecosystem had 1,594 RBTC in circulation, with an estimated value of around $69 million. Blockstream’s Liquid network accounted for 2,914 L-BTC, valued at about $126 million.
Taken together, Lightning BTC, RBTC, and L-BTC represented about $251 million in combined value. That was only a small fraction of the $12.8 billion hosted on Ethereum and BSC. The comparison made clear that sidechains and layer-2 alternatives, while important in the broader Bitcoin ecosystem, were still far behind the two major smart contract networks in terms of tokenized BTC adoption.
DeFi and DEX Access Help Explain the Shift
A central reason for the growth of bitcoin-pegged assets on Ethereum and BSC is the breadth of decentralized trading and financial infrastructure available on both chains. On Ethereum, tokenized BTC could be traded or deployed on platforms such as Uniswap, Sushiswap, 0x Native, Curve, Balancer, Bancor, Tokenlon, Dodo, Synthetix, Dydx, Kyber, and Airswap. BSC, with its EVM compatibility, offered similar flexibility through venues such as Pancakeswap and Binance Dex.
These platforms gave bitcoin holders access to a wide range of use cases that do not exist on Bitcoin’s base layer alone. Pegged BTC tokens could be used in cross-chain trading strategies, deposited into liquidity pools, swapped against a broad set of assets, or integrated into more complex DeFi products. The report also noted a practical advantage: using bitcoin representations on alternative chains may help reduce transaction costs compared with moving value directly on more congested networks.
In effect, tokenized bitcoin has become a bridge between Bitcoin’s monetary base and the programmability of smart contract platforms. That bridge is especially valuable in environments where decentralized exchanges and automated financial applications are growing quickly.
Ethereum and BSC Extend Their Lead in Alternative BTC Liquidity
By the end of the first quarter of 2021, the data described in the report suggested that Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain had decisively outpaced competing networks in attracting bitcoin-based liquidity. Even when compared with native bitcoin-oriented scaling systems such as the Lightning Network, the scale of tokenized BTC on ETH and BSC was dramatically larger.
The gap also points to a structural advantage. Smart contract ecosystems with strong DeFi participation tend to attract more wrapped bitcoin because users want to deploy BTC capital in lending markets, decentralized exchanges, and yield strategies. That creates a feedback loop: more liquidity draws more users, which in turn supports more issuance and tighter market integration.
Although sidechains and layer-2 competitors continue to develop, the report’s numbers indicated that catching up would require a substantial shift in market structure. At the time covered, Ethereum and BSC were not merely participating in the tokenized BTC trend—they were defining it.
More broadly, the growth of nearly 300,000 BTC on non-Bitcoin networks highlighted how the cryptocurrency market was evolving beyond single-chain usage. Bitcoin remained the reserve asset, but Ethereum and BSC increasingly served as the transactional and programmable layers where that capital could be mobilized. As a result, tokenized BTC was becoming one of the clearest indicators of cross-chain capital migration in the digital asset industry.