Bitcoin cannot natively be used in Ethereum’s smart contracts: the two networks do not talk to each other. WBTC is the workaround that stuck. Each token is an ERC-20 on Ethereum, and each is supposed to be matched by one bitcoin held by a custodian.<\/p>\n
Merchants send bitcoin to a custodian, which holds it and authorises the minting of an equal number of WBTC on Ethereum. Redeeming reverses the process and burns the tokens. The bitcoin addresses are public, so anyone can compare the amount held against the amount of WBTC in circulation \u2014 a genuine transparency advantage over most claims of backing, and one worth actually checking rather than assuming.<\/p>\n
Supply is whatever has been minted and not yet burned, so it tracks demand for bitcoin exposure inside Ethereum’s ecosystem rather than any schedule. It has fallen as well as risen, and a sustained decline usually says more about DeFi activity than about bitcoin.<\/p>\n
Who holds the underlying bitcoin, and under what legal arrangement, is the only question that really matters. Custody arrangements for WBTC have changed hands, and each change prompted holders and lending protocols to reassess whether they were comfortable \u2014 some adjusted their risk parameters or moved to alternatives. Watch the published proof-of-reserve figures, and watch whether the major lending markets still accept it as collateral.<\/p>\n
WBTC is used mainly as collateral in Ethereum lending markets and as a trading asset on decentralised exchanges, letting bitcoin holders borrow or earn without selling.<\/p>\n
State the trade honestly: holding WBTC swaps bitcoin’s greatest strength \u2014 an asset nobody can freeze or seize if you hold the keys \u2014 for a token that depends entirely on a company continuing to honour redemptions. You gain composability and take on custodial and smart-contract risk. That may well be worth it for a specific purpose, but it is not the same thing as holding bitcoin, and the difference tends to matter precisely when conditions are bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wrapped Bitcoin is an Ethereum token backed one-for-one by bitcoin held in custody \u2014 a way to use BTC in DeFi, and a claim on a custodian rather than on the coin itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"template":"","meta":{"_cp_coin_symbol":"WBTC","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-654","coin","type-coin","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinpric.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coin\/654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinpric.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coin"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinpric.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/coin"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinpric.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coinpric.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coin\/654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinpric.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}