Data from Dune Analytics indicates that WBTC’s supply on the Ethereum network surpassed 37,000 tokens in September, translating to over $2 billion at current market rates.

Despite the surge in total value locked (TVL) on Aave, cryptocurrency investors are expressing skepticism regarding the safety and reliability of the underlying spot Bitcoin that backs WBTC.

On August 9, BitGo, the custodian responsible for securing WBTC’s Bitcoin backing, announced that it would allow Hong Kong-based exchange BiT Global to have partial control over the multisignature wallet that holds the custodied Bitcoin.

This announcement sparked controversy, particularly due to the involvement of Justin Sun, raising concerns about potential misappropriations related to collateral as noted by Threshold, a competing Bitcoin wrapper.

Sky, a decentralized finance protocol formerly known as Maker, initially decided to remove WBTC from its platform on September 19. However, on September 24, they reversed this decision following advice from key advisor BA Labs.

BA Labs suggested pausing the offboarding plan after a detailed discussion with BitGo co-founder Mike Belshe in Sky’s governance forum. BitGo has assured stakeholders that it will provide at least 60 days of public written notice before any changes are made to the entities managing WBTC keys.

Furthermore, on September 23, 21.co, the parent organization of the cryptocurrency asset manager 21Shares, announced its intention to integrate Chainlink’s proof of reserve into its 21BTC offering to alleviate concerns over WBTC’s backing.

In response to related concerns regarding user terms for its newly launched cbBTC Wrapped Bitcoin product, Coinbase’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal confirmed that the platform would reimburse clients if it were to lose the underlying Bitcoin.

According to recent figures from DeFiLlama, WBTC continues to be the leading Bitcoin wrapper, maintaining a total value locked of nearly $10 billion.