The Ethereum blockchain now holds $ 2 billion in Bitcoin as BTC fever engulfs DeFi investors
31.10.2020

The Ethereum blockchain now holds $ 2 billion in Bitcoin as BTC fever engulfs DeFi investors

By bit.team

Currently, more than $ 2 billion worth of BTC is stored on the Ethereum network, and investors are getting creative with their assets, waiting for the price of BTC to rise even more.

Bitcoin running on Ethereum has become a hit

According to Dune Analytics, the number of synthetic Bitcoins traded on Ethereum has grown to $ 2 billion, which is a huge step forward from when the total blocked value (TVL) exceeded $1 billion at the beginning of the month.

Approximately 150,049 Bitcoins are currently running on Ether, representing 4.3% of Ethereum’s market capitalization. Bitcoin is increasingly being converted to other ERC-20 tokens via altcoins supported by BTC, such as Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). At the time of writing, WBTC is the sixth-largest Ethereum token by market capitalization, with a total blocked value of $ 1.59 billion. This is the token that is most used by investors as a gateway for exchanging bitcoins for other altcoins.

As Bitcoin has witnessed a small pullback after its bullish momentum in the past few weeks, despite stable trading above $ 13k, Bitcoin investors have benefited from the high returns that can be obtained from decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocols to maximize their funds by exchanging synthetic BTC compatible with Ethereum for other ERC-20 tokens.

Is the DeFi season ending?

While decentralised Finance has flourished in 2020, the recent bullish growth of Bitcoin has redirected investors ‘ attention to the largest cryptocurrency by market cap. According to crypto Analytics, DeFi tokens are rapidly falling on decentralized financial exchanges, which suggests that Bitcoin seems to have regained its dominance and again attracted attention.

According to DeFi Pulse, with the recent hack that hit the Harvest Finance decentralized Finance Protocol, tokens like Uniswap and Curve rose quickly, but the surge was short-lived, as it only lasted a day.

Since then, the volume of trading on decentralized Finance has declined, indicating that investor interest in Bitcoin may have resumed. The digital gold asset has surged since the start of the month, soaring by about 24% thanks to announcements of BTC purchases by major corporate firms such as Square, PayPal, and MicroStrategy.

As these tech giants set an example, this may encourage retail investors to also tap into cryptocurrency, suggesting that even more traders will participate in BTC trading in the future. Many Bitcoin bulls supported this view, including Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss, who has said time and time again that BTC will eventually reach a price of $ 500,000, as he believes this crypto asset is a better investment than gold and oil. Now he stated:

“Bitcoin is gaining speed, but it is still 5 thousand below the record level it reached 3 years ago. The party is just beginning.”

At the time of writing, the main cryptocurrency was trading at $ 13,350.