Alameda Research mints largest ever quantity of WBTC token for yield farming
Quick Take
- Crypto trading firm Alameda Research has today minted the largest ever quantity of WBTC, an ERC-20 token backed 1:1 by bitcoin, for yield farming.
- Alameda Research founder Sam Bankman-Fried told The Block that “there’s a lot of demand for bitcoin on other chains,” and “WBTC remains the largest of those.”
Crypto trading firm Alameda Research has today minted the largest ever quantity of WBTC, an ERC-20 token backed 1:1 by bitcoin, for yield farming.
The largest mint is worth 2,317 WBTC (about $25 million). It is just one WBTC more than what crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital minted yesterday — 2,316 WBTC.
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of Alameda Research, told The Block that the firm is continuing to see strong demand for WBTC due to growth in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.
"Given lower but still significant yield in DeFi, there's a lot of demand for bitcoin on other chains," said Bankman-Fried. "WBTC remains the largest of those, and most widely adopted in DeFi and yield farming, and so there continues to be demand for WBTC."
Indeed, WBTC is the largest and has a market share of about 75%, according to tracker Nansen. RenBTC follows next, with about 18% market share, and HBTC with about 4% share.
Alameda Research is also the largest minter of WBTC to date, with 37,609 tokens. CoinList and imToken are ranked second and third, having minted 28,162 and 8,991 WBTC tokens, respectively.
Disclaimer: The former CEO and majority shareholder of The Block has disclosed a series of loans from former FTX and Alameda founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
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