Wrapped Bitcoin wallet

What is Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC)?

WBTC is bitcoin held by a custodian and represented as a token on other chains at 1:1. Each unit is backed by BTC in reserve; merchants and the custodian handle minting and burning, and the reserve is published so anyone can compare the token supply against the addresses holding the coins. What a holder is really keeping is a redeemable claim, not bitcoin's own UTXOs.

The practical complications all come from where the token lives. WBTC began on Ethereum as an ERC-20 and now exists on several chains, and those versions are not one pooled balance: WBTC on one network is a separate token contract from WBTC on another, reachable only through a bridge. On Solana it is an SPL token needing a token account and SOL for fees; on the EVM chains the fee is that chain's own gas coin. The decimals follow bitcoin at eight rather than the eighteen most ERC-20s use, which is why amounts look different from other tokens in the same wallet. And a Bitcoin address cannot receive WBTC at all - unwinding it back to BTC goes through redemption, not a transfer.

Other tokenized bitcoins circulate with similar names and different issuers behind them, so the ticker alone does not tell you what you hold.

Supported networks in Tangem (7): Base, Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Solana, TRON, Monad, Sei Network.

Tangem keeps a distinct WBTC balance for each chain you have added and names the network on the transaction screen before the card is tapped, which is your moment to confirm that the chain you are sending on is the one the recipient is expecting. Holding a multichain asset is mostly a matter of knowing which copy you are touching, and that is the part this wallet puts in front of you.