As a result of an Executive Vote held this afternoon, MKR holders have accepted WBTC (wrapped Bitcoin) as a new collateral asset in the Maker Protocol. WBTC will help bring greater liquidity to the Ethereum and decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystems, and to decentralized exchanges (DEXs). The fourth collateral type approved by MakerDAO Governance, WBTC can now be used in addition to ETH, BAT, and USDC to open Maker Vaults in order to generate Dai.  

Prior to the vote, the Maker community discussed the merits of adding WBTC, as well as the appropriate risk parameters for the token (listed below), in the Maker Governance Forum. In addition, the governance community further discussed the token in the April 30, 2020, Governance and Risk meeting.

The addition of WBTC means that Bitcoin holders can now turn their BTC into WBTC (bring Bitcoin to the Ethereum blockchain), and then use it to generate Dai. For those unfamiliar with wrapped Bitcoin, here is a step-by-step guide to wrapping your BTC and opening a vault on Oasis.

WBTC Risk Parameters:

• Stability Fee: 1%
• Debt Ceiling: 10,000,000
• Liquidation Ratio: 150%
• Auction Lot Size: 1 W-BTC
• Minimum Bid Increment: 3%
• Bid Duration: 6 hours
• Max Auction Duration: 6 hours
• Liquidation Penalty: 13%
• Dust: 20 Dai

The flexibility of the Maker Protocol means that almost any kind of asset that can be tokenized can be added as collateral in the system, so long as it has appropriate risk parameters and is approved by Maker Governance. It’s exciting to add WBTC  to the list of collateral types, and we welcome users to connect their wallets to Oasis Borrow and lock up their WBTC to generate Dai.