Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) Moves From U.S.-Based Custody Model to One That Spans Three Countries

The new setup includes the same multi-signature technology, but control will be shared by the U.S., Singapore and Hong Kong.

The custodian of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) has shifted from a U.S.-based model to one spanning three countries.

The new setup involves multi-signature technology, with control shared by the U.S., Singapore and Hong Kong.

This change comes after BitGo, the former custodian, announced a deal to transfer custody to a joint venture involving BiT Global.

BiT Global's association with Tron founder Justin Sun raised concerns among some DeFi risk managers, leading to discussions about removing WBTC as collateral.

However, these concerns were later addressed and resolved through discussions with BitGo CEO Mike Belshe.

The shift in WBTC custody was completed on Oct. 8 following a 60-day transition period.

During the process, WBTC's bitcoin was moved into a different multi-sig wallet, which briefly caused reporting errors on DeFiLlama, making it appear that WBTC had lost 99% of its Total Value Locked (TVL).

"Housekeeping is done and all data has been updated," the WBTC team stated on X.

As a reminder, WBTC is a tokenized version of bitcoin that operates on the Ethereum blockchain.

It is an ERC-20 token backed 1:1 with BTC. WBTC transactions settle faster than native Bitcoin transactions, and the token is commonly used as collateral to participate in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi).

At the time of writing, WBTC has a circulating supply of 150,544 tokens and a market capitalization of $9.1 billion.