The non-custodial, decentralized exchange, Loopring, has listed pBTC – a token that acts as a fully-backed Bitcoin equivalent on the Ethereum blockchain.
The addition of pBTC to Loopring – the fastest decentralized exchange (DEX) based on Ethereum – gives Bitcoin users a quick on-ramp to Ethereum’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
Provable Things – the developers of pBTC – announced the listing of pBTC against stablecoin Tether (USDT) on June 16. According to it:
“pTokens BTC is now available on Loopring exchange and can be swapped with USDT. This makes Ethereum’s most high-performing DEX compatible with BTC and introduces its market liquidity. It also makes the high-performance, decentralized trading of pBTC possible.”
pBTC joins a host of Bitcoin-backed Ethereum tokens designed for use in the range of available Ethereum DeFi products, including Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). As reported recently by CryptoPotato, there’s more Bitcoin on the Ethereum network in the form of WBTC ($24 million) than there is on the Lightning Network ($8.2 million) – a supposed Bitcoin scaling solution.
According to data, there’s currently around $310,000 of Bitcoin on Ethereum in the form of pBTC, which equates to around 33 Bitcoin at present prices.
Loopring claims to process over 2,000 transactions per second using zkRollup technology. In essence, zkRollups stack multiple transactions into a single transaction. Transactions take place off-chain initially and are then verified on-chain later using zero-knowledge (zkSNARKs) proofs.
“The platform is cheaper and ~1000x faster than a “normal” DEX. It not only reduces gas consumption and brings overall settlement costs to only fractions of a cent, but thanks to the zkRollup mechanism, it means that the performance of underlying blockchains no longer affects the speed of trades,” stated Tuesday’s announcement.
The amount of pBTC tokens being used on Ethereum increased by over 100% from April alone. According to Provable Things, the arrival of pBTC on Loopring marks two firsts, which could further increase BTC’s utility on Ethereum.
“pBTC is the first cross-chain solution to be listed on the Loopring exchange, and by extension, the first instance of Bitcoin-pegged tokens leveraging the zkRollups for trading,” stated the announcement.
Featured image courtesy of Loopring Medium. The article was first published on: Jun 16, 2020
