WBTC is a joint project of three organizations: BitGo, Kyber Network, and Ren. BitGo, co-founded in 2013 by Mike Belshe, serves as the primary custodian. Kyber Network was founded in 2017 by Loi Luu, Victor Tran, and Yaron Velner in Singapore. Ren was founded in 2017 by Taiyang Zhang and Loong Wang, focusing on cross-chain solutions.

WBTC launched on October 26, 2018. By October 2020, it reached over 94,000 tokens worth approximately $1 billion. On January 31, 2025, WBTC celebrated its sixth anniversary, marking over $7 billion in total value locked and becoming the largest wrapped Bitcoin in the industry.

WBTC operates as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum with a custody model involving merchants and custodians. BitGo serves as the primary custodian holding BTC reserves. The minting process involves users sending BTC to custodians who mint equivalent WBTC tokens. Burning destroys WBTC to reclaim BTC. Security features include 24/7 monitoring, multi-party key handling, and regular audits.

WBTC has no predetermined token schedule. Supply is determined by user demand—tokens are automatically minted when users convert BTC to WBTC, and burned when converted back. The 1:1 backing ensures token supply directly reflects Bitcoin reserves held by custodians, with circulating supply around 119,500 WBTC.

WBTC operates through a DAO structure consisting of governing members who vote on protocol upgrades and changes. Members can also serve as merchants or custodians managing BTC assets. The governance model allows decentralized decision-making on significant protocol changes while maintaining the 1:1 peg mechanism.

WBTC enables Bitcoin holders to participate in Ethereum DeFi: lending/borrowing on Aave, Compound, and MakerDAO; liquidity provision on Uniswap and SushiSwap; yield farming; margin trading; and as collateral for crypto-backed loans. It allows exchanges and wallets to support BTC operations via Ethereum nodes alone.