More than $1B in Bitcoin has been tokenized for DeFi
The milestone illustrates the increasing popularity of ETH-based protocols for generating passive returns among Bitcoin hodlers, with the entire DeFi sector having been valued at just $1.05 billion TVL as of the start of June — of which $47.5 million or 4.7% was Bitcoin, indicating that the share of DeFi’s capitalization represented by BTC has increased by 150% over three and a half months. In June, the vast majority of BTC in the DeFi sector took the form of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), However, the launch of Ren’s more decentralized Virtual Machine (VM) and RenBTC in addition to grassroots tokenization protocols like PieDAO’s BTC++ this year have boosted Bitcoin’s expansion into DeFi.
While WBTC is still the top-ranked tokenization protocol by total BTC locked after attracting 56,800 Bitcoin worth nearly $605.5 million since late-November 2018, Ren’s VM has tokenized 21,500 Bitcoin worth $230 million since launching in May of this year. While both protocols have more than doubled in the number of locked Bitcoin over 30 days, WBTC continues to attract a larger volume of BTC than Ren — with WBTC growing from roughly 28,360 BTC to 56,850 BTC, and RenBTC expanding from 10,000 BTC to 21,510 over one month.
