# Introduction

## Overview

AnetaBTC is a protocol that allows Bitcoin to be directly wrapped on the Cardano and Ergo blockchains. This allows Bitcoin holders to access the full value of their assets in a secure and efficient manner, enabling them to utilize Cardano decentralized exchanges (DEXs), participate in lending protocols, and more. 

AnetaBTC serves a similar purpose to wBTC, which is a 1:1 BTC-backed token on the Ethereum blockchain. wBTC is currently the largest wrapped Bitcoin protocol, with over $4 billion of locked Bitcoin value. However, unlike wBTC, the AnetaBTC protocol will evolve to become fully decentralized through three versions.

In August 2023, we launched our [v1 mainnet ](https://app.anetabtc.io)on Cardano. 

The number of cBTC in circulation can be tracked [here](https://www.taptools.io/charts/token?pairID=0be55d262b29f564998ff81efe21bdc0022621c12f15af08d0f2ddb1.333f12dc7aed82cd3d4c057e28859fadfd677fc93e0662ab4be5942c9e194dc2) and cBTC can be traded [here](https://app.minswap.org/swap?currencySymbolA=\&tokenNameA=\&currencySymbolB=4190b2941d9be04acc69c39739bd5acc66d60ccab480d8e20bc87e37\&tokenNameB=63425443).