Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) is an ERC-20 digital asset backed 1:1 with Bitcoin (BTC).
WBTC is the native token of the project. The current use cases for WBTC include:
Trading: WBTC serves as the equivalent of BTC in the Ethereum ecosystem and can be used in trading.
The project consists of the following major components working in conjunction:
Mint: User can send his/her BTC to a Merchant, who will initiate a WBTC mint request and send the BTC from the user to the Custodian. The Custodian will then mint the corresponding WBTC, which will be subsequently transferred to the user via the Merchant.
Burn: When a user wishes to redeem his/her BTC with WBTC, the Merchant will burn the WBTC and then communicate this transaction with the Custodian. The Custodian then transfers the user's BTC back to the merchant and is subsequently transferred to the user.
WBTC DAO: The addition and removal of merchants and custodians for WBTC on Ethreum will be controlled by WBTC DAO.
As at Oct 19th 2022, the total token supply and circulating supply of WBTC is 238,013.41.