Kraken announces its own Wrapped Bitcoin on Ethereum

Crypto exchange Kraken has joined the race for dominance in the realm of Wrapped Bitcoins, unveiling its own Ethereum-based token, kBTC.

The landscape of Wrapped Bitcoins is becoming more crowded as U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken has introduced its own Wrapped Bitcoin, just a month after its rival Coinbase made the same step.

In a blog announcement on Thursday, Oct. 17, the San Francisco-based trading platform said the “kBTC” token is built on the Ethereum network, and “fully backed 1:1 by an equivalent amount of Bitcoin” held in Kraken Financial, a Wyoming-chartered depository institution. Kraken emphasized that “clients can verify this for themselves at any time by inspecting our reserves on-chain,” underscoring its commitment to transparency among competitors.

Crypto exchanges compete in Wrapped Bitcoin battle

In addition to Ethereum, kBTC holders can also use the token in decentralized applications through interoperability with OP Mainnet (formerly known as Optimism), the announcement said.

Kraken added that New York-headquartered blockchain cybersecurity firm Trail of Bits evaluated the kBTC ERC-20 smart contract, noting that the audit involved a “detailed examination of our codebase and client architecture, aimed at identifying and addressing any potential security vulnerabilities.”

The launch comes just a month after Coinbase debuted its own Wrapped Bitcoin, called “cBTC,” available on both Ethereum and Base. Kraken’s move also follows increased scrutiny of Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) from BitGo, particularly after the firm partnered with Hong Kong’s BiT Global. This partnership raised concerns in the crypto community about the potential shift of control over wBTC to an entity linked to TRON founder Justin Sun.