Hassan Ahmed, director of the Singapore region of the US exchange Coinbase, said at the Solana Breakpoint 2024 conference on September 21 that he plans to import his own Bitcoin wrapped token (wrapped token): cbBTC into the Solana blockchain.
Among Bitcoin wrapped tokens, WBTC has always been the leader in the past, but after the founder BitGo was taken over by Tron founder Justin Sun, it began to be boycotted. Therefore, there are many emerging competitors who want to fight for their position, and cbBTC is one of the most popular.
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TogglePlan to introduce cbBTC to Solana
Coinbase already announced the launch of a new packaging token, cbBTC, on Twitter in August 2024. It was officiallyreleased on the Ethereum and Base chains on September 12, and plans to apply cbBTC to more chains in the future.
Ahmed said that although cbBTC was recently launched on Base, after studying user data, it was found that people like Solana, and coincidentally, Coinbase also likes it, so of course cbBTC must also be released on Solana. When asked to reveal more details such as the release date, Ahmed only said that they are working hard and will release news when it goes online, so please wait patiently.
What is Wrapped Bitcoin?
A Bitcoin Wrapped Token (commonly known as Wrapped Bitcoin or WBTC) is a tokenized version of Bitcoin (BTC) that exists on other blockchains, such as Ethereum or Binance Smart Chain. The concept of wrapping Bitcoin is to make its value usable on these other platforms, which often have smart contract functionality that is not supported by the Bitcoin network.
Here’s how it works:
Tokenization : Bitcoin is "wrapped" by locking a specific number of BTC in a smart contract or a trusted custodian. In exchange, an equal amount of WBTC is minted on the target blockchain (e.g. Ethereum).
1:1 anchoring : WBTC tokens maintain a 1:1 ratio with Bitcoin, and each WBTC represents a locked Bitcoin.
Application scenarios : Through WBTC, users can participate in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications on Ethereum or other blockchains, such as lending, trading, etc., without having to sell their Bitcoins. This bridges the gap between the value of Bitcoin and the smart contract functionality of the blockchain.
Redemption : Users can redeem Bitcoin at any time through the reverse procedure, that is, burning WBTC to unlock the corresponding BTC.
In smart contract public chains (such as Ethereum, BSC, etc.), ecological participants will expect that Bitcoin with more than half of the market value can transfer its value to its public chain for more value applications.
