Coinbase Expands cbBTC to Solana, Boosting DeFi Options for Bitcoin Holders

Coinbase has introduced the enlargement of its wrapped Bitcoin product, cbBTC, to the Solana blockchain. Initially launched in September, cbBTC was initially accessible solely on Ethereum and Coinbase’s native Layer 2 Base blockchain.

Now on Solana, it is going to exist as a Solana Program Library (SPL) token, which may signify each fungible and non-fungible property.

Coinbase’s cbBTC Debuts on Solana

Upon launch, cbBTC might be built-in into a variety of outstanding Solana DeFi platforms, together with Jupiter Alternate, Meteora, Kamino Finance, Jito, Phoenix, Drift Protocol, Raydium, Orca, Save Finance (previously Solend), Manifest, and Loopscale Labs.

This transfer marks Coinbase’s effort to broaden the attain of cbBTC past the Ethereum ecosystem. Coinbase had beforehand acknowledged,

“Coinbase is pioneering a brand new period for DeFi with cbBTC – a trusted and respected wrapped model of Bitcoin. cbBTC is backed 1:1 by BTC held in custody by Coinbase – which has a ten+ 12 months document of securely custodying billions in Bitcoin for establishments and prospects throughout the globe. Higher transparency with proof of reserves has been a part of our roadmap for the reason that conception of cbBTC and can comply with.”

Moreover, in a separate announcement, Coinbase additionally revealed that cbBTC’s market capitalization hit a $1 billion milestone in simply 9 weeks after its launch.

Proliferation of Wrapped Bitcoin Tokens

The marketplace for wrapped Bitcoin tokens is increasing as extra suppliers enter the scene. The primary goal of those tokens is to allow BTC holders to interact with different networks and DeFi functions exterior of Bitcoin with out liquidating their holdings. Backed 1:1 with Bitcoin, wrapped BTC tokens are largely on Ethereum.

The primary, WBTC, was launched in 2019 by BitGo and stays the biggest, with a provide of roughly 150,000 and a market cap of $11,18 billion. Later entries in 2020 included HBTC from HTX, tBTC by Threshold Community, and renBTC by Ren Protocol.

Along with Coinbase, Kraken has additionally launched its personal wrapped Bitcoin token, named kBTC this 12 months. The token was made accessible on each Ethereum and OP Mainnet.