TechFlow news: Kyber Network co-founder Loi Luu took to Twitter to reflect on the origin and success factors of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).
Luu noted that the WBTC project originated in 2018, when the DeFi ecosystem was still in its early stages. At that time, there was a lack of highly liquid tokens on Ethereum, daily trading volume across the entire DEX ecosystem was less than $1 million, and total value locked (TVL) in DeFi amounted to only tens of millions of dollars.
The Kyber team realized that bringing Bitcoin liquidity into the ecosystem was essential for advancing DeFi. After discussions with BitGo CTO Ben Chan, they decided on a centralized custodial model to maintain design simplicity and avoid hidden technical risks. During development, BitGo handled off-chain technology and legal work, while Kyber focused on smart contracts, partnerships, and community outreach.
They chose the neutral brand name "Wrapped BTC (WBTC)" to emphasize its nature as a public good. Through persistent explanation and promotion, WBTC eventually gained broad support across the DeFi ecosystem.
Today, WBTC has approximately $9 billion in total value locked and is regarded as the de facto Bitcoin-backed token on Ethereum and other EVM-compatible chains.
Luu attributes WBTC's success to its community-centric approach, simple and understandable technical design, clear trust model, and first-mover advantage. However, recent changes at BitGo have raised concerns. Luu expressed a desire to better understand the motivations behind these changes and emphasized the need to monitor potential risks they might pose to WBTC's future under Bit Global.
