On-Chain WBTC Value On Ethereum Close To Surpass Lightning Network

The lightning bitcoin network was praised by the Bitcoin community for years now but as we can see, the on-chain WBTC value on Ethereum is close to surpassing it. We are still a long way from getting close to mass adoption and the adoption of the Lightning Network is so marginal that even the wrapped BTC on the ETH network will be worth more.

Following our latest bitcoin news, the on-chain WBTC was growing steadily on Ethereum and the positive development allows for more cross-chain communications which are a very important step towards integrating the smart contract of Ethereum especially with Bitcoin’s secure blockchain database. According to the Crypto Lark, the amount of wrapped BTC locked on the smart contracts of Ethereum now totaled $7.8 million which surpasses the lighting bitcoin network which has about $7.8 million in BTC on its own network despite being in development since 2015.

Wrapped Bitcoin was launched in 2019 and it operates similarly to a stabelcoin pegged one-to-one to Bitcoin and it was started by BitGo in collaboration with Kyber Network and Republic Protocol as it was initially reported when it was announced. WBTC is now a part of a much bigger movement on Ethereum towards what it is called decentralized finance (DeFi) and it has dominated the fast-growing sector with more than $1 billion locked in DeFi related contracts on the network.

The growth WBTC has been seen as parabolic and the growth is expected to hit another 130% this year. The increase in DeFi on Ethereum has left other competitors such as Tron out in the wind. It seems quite unlikely that any other smart contract network will be able to catch up to this point. DeFi still remains quite controversial and it has also been a subject of criticism. A smart contract exploits in February saw 1,1,9 ETH stolen which caused a lot of concerns over security. The litecoin founder Charlie Lee also criticized DeFi for being a decentralization theater but he was criticized on Twitter for it as being cynical.

Wrapped Bitcoin now represents $7.8 million in value in the lighting bitcoin network while Ethereum seems to make further records in 2020.