cbBTC: Elevating The Bitcoin Ecosystem
Wrapped Bitcoin has long been the dominant bridge bringing Bitcoin liquidity onchain, with Wrapped Bitcoin serving as the standard across DeFi. The introduction of Coinbase Wrapped BTC marks a new phase, backed by a major exchange and positioned to more tightly connect centralized and decentralized markets. As cbBTC adoption grows, it is beginning to reshape how Bitcoin liquidity is distributed and utilized across ecosystems. This article analyzes cbBTC’s rise through key market structure metrics, including supply by chain, and its performance across trading volume, liquidity, and lending activity.
Supply and holder growth
Since its launch in August 2024, cbBTC supply has expanded rapidly, surpassing 90,000 tokens by the end of Q1 2026. Growth has remained consistently strong, averaging 19.59% month-over-month, 70.96% quarter-over-quarter, and 391.07% year-over-year. Ethereum led in short-term growth across monthly and quarterly intervals, while Base recorded the highest sustained year-over-year expansion, maintaining growth rates above 300% from September 2025 through March 2026.
This trajectory saw a short-lived disruption on April 20, one day after the KelpDAO hack, when total supply declined by 10% to 77,020, including a record burn of 9,098 tokens on Ethereum. The sharp contraction on Ethereum allowed Base to overtake it by a narrow margin—36,352 versus 36,285 tokens—making Base the largest chain by cbBTC supply.
Despite this setback, cbBTC’s market share climbed to 40% of total tokenized Bitcoin market cap by mid-April 2026, up from 23% a year earlier, before easing to 37.4% alongside the supply decline. At current growth rates, cbBTC is expected to recover quickly and is likely to surpass Wrapped Bitcoin in total supply within 2026.
In terms of holder distribution, Base dominates in user count, with more than 515,000 holders as of April 20, 2026—approximately 6x Ethereum, 8x Solana, and 50x Arbitrum. However, growth rates diverge, with Ethereum posting the fastest monthly holder growth at 32.53%, compared to Base at 12.05%.
Trading and lending
Trading activity is disproportionately concentrated outside Ethereum despite its larger supply base. Base and Solana exhibit significantly higher turnover, with average rates of 38.42% and 23.49% respectively, compared to just 2.4% on Ethereum. By April 2026, cumulative trading volume on Base reached 1.72 million cbBTC, equivalent to $162.43 billion, with peak daily volume recorded on February 5, 2026 at 22,397.85 cbBTC during a sharp BTC price drawdown.
Despite active trading, a larger share of cbBTC is deployed in lending markets as collateral asset. On Solana, DEX liquidity stands at $26.18 million, compared to $128.98 million allocated to lending across platforms such as Kamino and JupLend. On Kamino, cbBTC ranks among the top by total supply, with $104.11 million deposited and a peak of $404.64 million.
JupLend cbBTC liquidity peaked at $79.94 million in November 2025 before stabilizing near $42 million by April 2026. Across both platforms, utilization remains low at approximately 2%, indicating excess available liquidity.
A similar pattern is observed on Base. DEX liquidity totals $112.8 million across 320 markets, while significantly larger capital is allocated to lending and collateralization. On Morpho, over $2.2 billion in cbBTC is used as collateral, alongside $4.45 million supplied to vaults. Collateral growth has been particularly strong, increasing 52x from January 2025 to April 2026 with an average monthly growth rate of 36.91%, even as direct supply in certain vaults declined due to a shift toward stablecoin-based strategies.
Across chains on Morpho, cbBTC has emerged as a leading collateral asset, anchoring two largest markets: cbBTC/USDC pairs on Base ($1.22 billion) and Ethereum ($289.64 million). Total collateral value grew from negligible levels in late 2024 to a peak of $3 billion by April 2026, representing roughly 50% of total collateral across supported platforms. In contrast, WBTC accounts for only around 5%, highlighting a significant divergence in usage.
On Aave, cbBTC ranks second among BTC-denominated assets, with its share of total BTC deposits rising from 25.56% in 2025 to 33.5% in 2026. However, utilization remains relatively low, at 5.22% on Base and 1.65% on Ethereum, suggesting continued capacity for borrowing demand to expand.
Conclusion
cbBTC’s rapid growth signals a structural shift in tokenized Bitcoin, moving from passive exposure toward active financial use. It has already surpassed Wrapped Bitcoin in market share and is increasingly concentrated in high-activity ecosystems like Base and Solana, where turnover and capital efficiency are higher. More importantly, its dominant role as collateral across platforms such as Morpho and Aave highlights a clear shift toward lending-driven demand. As adoption continues, cbBTC is positioning itself not just as a wrapper, but as core infrastructure for Bitcoin liquidity in onchain finance.