Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced on Thursday the launch of Kraken Wrapped Bitcoin (kBTC), a cross-network compatible ERC20 token backed by Bitcoin and held in custody by Kraken. Kraken stated that through interoperability with the Ethereum blockchain and the OP Mainnet (formerly known as Optimism) layer 2 network, users will be able to use kBTC on decentralized applications (dApps). The company has already announced partnerships with deBridge, Definitive, Gauntlet, ParaSwap, and Yearn. Kraken also plans to expand this wrapped token to other networks, including non-EVM ecosystems.
According to the announcement, kBTC’s ERC-20 smart contract has been evaluated by external security auditing firm Trail of Bits. Kraken has also made the on-chain reserve address of the token public for real-time verification by users.
Prior to this, US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced in September the launch of their own wrapped Bitcoin, Coinbase Wrapped BTC (cbBTC), which currently has a market value of $442 million. The market value of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), which recently raised concerns in the community, is $10 billion.
