Coinbase has set the crypto community abuzz with speculation following a cryptic hint about a potential new wrapped Bitcoin product, tentatively called “cbBTC.”
The news came courtesy of an Aug. 14 post on Coinbase’s official X account which simply stated “cbBTC,” followed by a “coming soon” comment.
Jesse Pollak, head of Coinbase’s layer-2 network Base, added speculation to the fire stating in a subsequent post expressing his enthusiasm for Bitcoin (BTC) via a hint to build a “massive Bitcoin economy” on the L2 network.
to say it out loud: I love bitcoin, am so grateful for it's role kickstarting crypto, and we're going to build a massive bitcoin economy on @base.
— jesse.base.eth (@jessepollak) August 14, 2024
At the time of writing, Coinbase had not added any new details regarding cbBTC, but buzz created by the initial announcement reflects the growing focus on wrapped Bitcoin assets and their role in decentralized finance.
A similar product, Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) was created by the Palo Alto-based crypto exchange BitGo in Jan. 2019. That project facing scrutiny after the exchange entered into a partnership with Hong Kong’s BiT Global and Tron (TRX) founder Justin Sun, which would see some of its WBTC business move to south-east Asia.
Some players in the DeFi space have raised concerns about the move, with Block Analitica, a risk management firm that provides assessments for DeFi platforms, asking MakerDAO to stop issuing any new WBTC-related debts, due to Sun’s involvement with WBTC.
However, BitGo CEO Matt Belshe downplayed those concerns, saying the controversy was mostly due to Sun’s reputation rather than any genuine security concerns over WBTC. Belshe assured the community that WBTC’s security protocols would remain intact, with no anticipated changes, even with Sun’s involvement.
