Cardano Unveils Wrapped Bitcoin cBTC In A Boost to Its DeFi Ecosystem

25. Apr 2023 Posted by Akolkar B on News

Last week, the Cardano blockchain announced its wrapped Bitcoin token cBTC on the Cardano testnet in a move that seeks to lure Bitcoin users to the evolving Cardano DeFi ecosystem.

The Cardano wrapped Bitcoin cBTC will utilize the anetaBTC protocol and shall operate within the Cardano ecosystem to boost Bitcoin liquidity. As a result, Cardano users will be able to mint the cBTC token using the anetaBTC protocol. This will allow them to trade, finance, and add liquidity to the Cardano testnet protocols.

As we can see, the wrapped Bitcoin tokens on the Cardano blockchain will be a 1:1 representation of Bitcoin. The goal of the wrapped tokens is to simplify the transfer of value across blockchains that lack interoperability.

Since the beginning of the year 2023, the Cardano blockchain has witnessed a healthy surge in DeFi activity. So far in 2023, the total value locked on the Cardano blockchain has jumped from $50 million to over $150 million.

Of the several DeFi protocols launched on the Cardano blockchain, those holding the largest TVL include Indigo, Wingriders, and Minswap. Since its launch in early March, Cardano’s native stablecoin project Died has garnered more than $15 million in total value locked (TVL).

Market experts say that three factors: DeFi, governance, and scaling, shall play a crucial role in triggering the next bull run for Cardano’s native crypto ADA.

Cardano’s native cryptocurrency ADA has participated in the broader market rally this year in 2023 and is currently at near 50% gains year-to-date. As of press time, ADA is trading at a price of $0.38 with a market cap of $13.2 billion as the seventh largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

In another development, the Cardano blockchain has also witnessed a healthy uptick in the NFT sales volumes on the platform. The Cardano blockchain announced a NFT sales volume of US$265,335, showing a 22.05% rise. 

The Cardano blockchain network hosts some of the well-known NFT collections such as The Ape Society, Clay Nation by Clay Mates, and Zesty Zebras.

Furthermore, Cardano developers have been working to bring smart contract functionality to the platform in full-fledged operation mode by the end of the year.