Ren holds the second position behind Wrapped Bitcoin, or wBTC, which stands as the most popular way of tokenizing Bitcoin for utilization with DeFi covenants.
As per btconethereum.com, as of date, there is a little more than 29,000 wBTC on Ethereum network. Likewise, there are roughly 9,500 renBTC hosted on Ethereum blockchain, slightly down from 10,000 on August 17.
As DeFi grows exponentially, a flurry of investors are contemplating on the use of their BTC holdings to gain access to yield farming investment opportunities. Overall, 44,000 BTC or over half-a-billion dollar worth BTC is now locked on the Ethereum network.
Within a week, the RenVM platform, built by cross-chain liquidity provider Ren, saw the TVL (total value locked) rise by over 210% to record a new peak of $175 million, as per Defipulse.com.
RenVM’s native crypto, Ren, has undergone a parabolic rise in prices, from $0.16 to $0.55, reflecting an appreciation of 245% so far this month.
There are hints of Bitcoin supporters turning uneasy with Ethereum advocates boasting about the quantum of Bitcoin tokenized on its network. In a podcast recently hosted by Peter McCormack, with participation from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Blockstream CSO Samson Mow pointed out that tokenized Bitcoin only strengthened the argument that Bitcoin is a need of Ether supports as well.
“The whole reason that Bitcoin is staying wrapped to be used on Ethereum is because it is stable and reliable. That’s why it seems to be Ethereans prefer using wrapped Bitcoin to Ether to do their DeFi stuff.”
A YouTube video released by Bankless calls Samson Mow’s justification as a ‘blatant lie.’ The Bankless hosts stated that Bitcoin has precisely the same issues of scaling and high transaction charges as Ethereum, when demand increases, and underlined that the manner in which Bitcoin ‘scales’ currently is through tokenization on Ethereum.
Similar to many ETH advocates, they responded negatively to Mow’s cynicism about the venture and stated that they had switched off the podcast to show detest.