Ethereum now hosts over $1.2 billion in Bitcoin tokens, with Alameda Research marking a historic milestone by minting $25 million in wrapped Bitcoin on Friday. The development came as Bitcoin's spot p
Ethereum now hosts over $1.2 billion in Bitcoin tokens, with Alameda Research marking a historic milestone by minting $25 million in wrapped Bitcoin on Friday. The development came as Bitcoin's spot price fell to $10,000 in the preceding week before settling beneath $10,800, yet transfers of the asset onto the Ethereum blockchain continued to accelerate.
Since July, Bitcoin tokens on Ethereum have climbed 10%, now totaling over $1 billion in value. The shift reflects a broader move by users pulling Bitcoin from centralized exchanges to engage in decentralized finance activities, where they can access yield farming strategies and other DeFi opportunities.
Large Bitcoin movements on Friday aligned with this trend. Whale Alert tracked seven separate transactions, each moving as much as 3,500 bitcoins from Binance wallets to unidentified addresses. Within a 24-hour period, whales transferred over $120 million worth of Bitcoin from various wallets and exchanges.
Alameda Research, the trading firm founded by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, leads the wrapped Bitcoin market. Bitcoin token totals on Ethereum have climbed to 114,077 as of September 25, up from roughly 100,000 in mid-September. More than 83,000 of those are WBTC, accounting for 73.6% of the total. renBTC comprises 18.4%, while HBTC holds 4.22%.
Alameda alone has minted more than 37,600 WBTC tokens through September 25, according to blockchain tracking site Nansen. CoinList ranks second with 29,000 tokens minted, followed by imToken with nearly 9,000.
On September 25, Alameda minted 2,317 WBTC tokens valued at $25 million. The transaction exceeded the 2,316 tokens that Three Arrows Capital minted on September 24, establishing a new single-day record for wrapped Bitcoin creation.
