WBTC loses its peg to Bitcoin on Justin Sun-backed Poloniex

Justin Sun’s crypto exchange Poloniex sees WBTC trading at a 20% discount, raising concerns over its peg to Bitcoin.

The price of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) on Poloniex in a trading pair with BTC has dropped by 22%, raising concerns over the exchange’s ability to offer trades in the WBTC/BTC pair.

According to Poloniex’s data, the exchange recorded no trading activity in the pair over the past few days. At the time of writing, WBTC is trading at a 22% discount to BTC, indicating a value of approximately $48,738 within the pair’s framework. WBTC’s trading activity on Poloniex abruptly ceased on Mar. 26, with no trading activity changes since then.

It’s unclear whether Poloniex is offering WBTC on the Ethereum network or TRON. While an earlier blog announcement from the exchange introduced TRON-based WBTC, Poloniex’s description section for the WBTC/BTC pair still references WBTC as a token based on ERC-20, an Ethereum blockchain token standard.

Despite the depeg, WBTC continues to trade freely on Poloniex in a pair with USDT, a stablecoin issued by Tether. On HTX (formerly Huobi), another crypto exchange linked to Justin Sun, WBTC appears to be maintaining its peg to BTC, though trading in the pair also shows zero activity over the past 24 hours. At the time of writing, neither Poloniex nor Justin Sun has issued any public statements on the matter.