Over $1 billion worth of bitcoin has been tokenized on Ethereum as the total supply of tokenized bitcoin (BTC) passed 92,600 on Thursday, or 0.42% of the total BTC supply. In January, less than 1,200 BTC were tokenized worth less than $7 million.
Wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), the largest tokenized bitcoin project, has minted over 60,500 tokenized BTC since its launch in early 2019, representing over 65% of the total tokenized BTC supply.
“Huge buying demand” over the counter is one reason for the rapid increase in supply of tokenized BTC, according to Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX and co-founder of Alameda Research, the exchange’s sister company.
OTC demand for WBTC started at FTX with the advent of decentralized finance’s yield farming craze, said Bankman-Fried. Demand continued to grow as the total value held in DeFi protocols increased.
Nearly 70% of all WBTC minted in August were claimed by Alameda Research, as CoinDesk previously reported.
RenBTC, the second largest tokenized bitcoin project, has issued 22,000 tokenized bitcoins since May, according to data queried on Dune Analytics.