According to data recorded on December 28, 2021, the total supply of bitcoin-pegged tokens circulating across multiple blockchains has reached 434,265.43 BTC, representing a market value exceeding $21.3 billion. Ten distinct projects now issue wrapped bitcoin tokens, with Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) commanding a dominant 59.66% share of the total.
Ethereum Ecosystem: WBTC Leads the Pack
Wrapped Bitcoin, launched in early 2018, overtook the Lightning Network in total value locked by July 2019. Today, Ethereum hosts the largest concentration of tokenized bitcoin, with 259,090 WBTC in circulation. Across seven BTC-pegged projects on Ethereum, the combined total locked value (TVL) stands at 323,264 BTC, accounting for 74.43% of all tokenized bitcoin.
The second largest Ethereum-based project is HBTC, holding 39,884 BTC, followed by RENBTC (17,054), SBTC (4,203), IMBTC (1,317), PBTC (888), and TBTC (828). Ethereum's dominance underscores its deep integration with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
Binance Smart Chain: BTCB as the Runner-Up
Outside Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain’s BTCB has emerged as the second-largest tokenized bitcoin project by supply. As of the reporting date, approximately 105,115.44 BTCB were in circulation, with a fully diluted market cap of $5.52 billion and a 24-hour trading volume of $43.6 million. Leading trading venues include Hitbtc, PancakeSwap v2, Thorchain, and PancakeSwap v1.
Sidechain Solutions: RSK and Liquid
Blockstream and RSK operate federated sidechain-based tokenized bitcoin solutions. RSK currently issues 2,522 RBTC, secured by 95 EH/s of Bitcoin hashrate, while Blockstream’s Liquid sidechain holds 3,363.99 LBTC. RBTC’s market value stands at approximately $124 million, and LBTC at $165.4 million. However, these two projects together account for only 1.35% of the aggregate tokenized bitcoin supply (LBTC 0.77%, RBTC 0.58%).
Approaching the Half-Million Mark
At the current growth trajectory, the total supply of tokenized bitcoin is on track to soon exceed half a million BTC. These tokens serve as crucial liquidity bridges for blockchains that cannot natively use Bitcoin, but they also raise discussions around centralized custody, cross-chain security, and decentralization trade-offs. What do you think about the 434K tokenized bitcoin in circulation today? Let us know in the comments.