What happened to WBTC on TRON?

On August 9 last year, a press release announced that Justin Sun and BiT Global were getting involved with Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).

It claimed that this new direction would include “the Tron ecosystem, which is the leading blockchain that presently hosts the largest circulating supply of USDT stablecoins in the world.”

When this announcement was made, Wrapped Bitcoin already had a WBTC on TRON product that had launched in 2021. However, it was rarely used, with approximately 100 bitcoins (BTC) used in this way.

After the announcement and with Sun’s involvement, Wrapped Bitcoin made the decision to remove the WBTC on TRON dashboard from its website, eliminating disclosure about approved partners and, more importantly, where the BTC backing the product was stored.

Read more: Justin Sun-advised HTX has redeemed 7,300 WBTC it did not disclose

More recently, TRONSCAN no longer displays the WBTC on TRON with the analytics that it used to display.

Reviewing the smart contract for WBTC on TRON shows that the most recent transfer for the token was over two months ago on April 15, showing that it’s still not commonly used.

Additionally, querying the contract using TRONSCAN still shows approximately 100 BTC for this project.

BitGo, BiT Global, Wrapped Bitcoin, and Sun haven’t announced any specific change to this product, but the changes on TRONSCAN and Wrapped Bitcoin’s website suggest that it’s being deemphasized.

The lack of transparency that the project has now puts it more in line with Sun’s other wrapped BTC product offered by his exchange Poloniex. This also doesn’t disclose where the BTC backing the product is stored.

Protos reached out to BitGo, BiT Global, and Wrapped Bitcoin for clarity on some of these issues related to WBTC on TRON, but they didn’t immediately respond.