21.co launches Bitcoin wrapper on Ethereum

21.co, the parent of cryptocurrency asset manager 21Shares, is launching its own Bitcoin ( BTC ) wrapper — 21.co Wrapped Bitcoin (21BTC) — on the Ethereum blockchain network, according to a Sept. 3 announcement. 

Launching 21BTC expands 21.co’s existing suite of wrapped tokens on Ethereum, including wrapped Avalanche ( AVAX ), Polkadot ( DOT ) and Solana ( SOL ) tokens. 21.co launched 21BTC on Solana in May, the company said.

The BTC wrapper is designed to “bring stringent asset management best practices… to the world of wrapped assets,” including “institutional-grade custodians and security protocols,” Eliezer Ndinga, 21.co’s head of strategy and business development for digital assets, said in a statement.

21.co said user protections include cold storage and regulated third-party custodians. It is partnering with market maker Flow Trader to manage the issuance of 21BTC. Bitcoin wrappers are ERC-20 tokens—or other types of smart-contract compatible tokens—backed by BTC.

21.co’s announcement comes as rival BTC wrapper, WBTC, faces backlash over its custodian BitGo’s planned partnership with BiT Global, which would grant the Hong Kong-based crypto exchange partial custody of the WBTC’s Bitcoin backing. WBTC is the most popular BTC wrapper, with nearly $9 billion in market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap. 

21.co’s wrapped tokens on Ethereum. Source: 21.co

Related: DeFi protocol Threshold proposes Bitcoin wrapper merger to ‘save WBTC’

BitGo’s announcement “has proven controversial due to the involvement of Justin Sun, with many in the ecosystem, expressing concern over his ‘affiliated projects show worrying signs of possible misappropriation’ of collateral,” decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Threshold said in an Aug. 29 governance proposal . 

21.co is best known for its subsidiary 21Shares, which issues cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) and 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF (CETH). 

Wrapped BTC acts “as a critical source of collateral and enabl[es] a wide range of financial activities, such as lending, borrowing, and trading,” Michael Lie, Flow Trader’s global head of digital assets, said in a statement. 

21.co’s wrapped BTC “brings enhanced liquidity and enables improved interoperability across multiple blockchain networks,” he said.

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