Binance, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has integrated Bitcoin ARC-20 atomical assets into its Web3 wallet through its Inscriptions Marketplace. ARC-20 is a token standard that enables the creation of fungible tokens that can be held and transferred on the Bitcoin blockchain. To celebrate this integration, Binance is offering zero-fee trading on ARC-20 tokens until June 2, 2024.
The Atomicals protocol, developed in January, is inspired by Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard and allows for the minting, transferring, and updating of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on the Bitcoin blockchain. Atomicals explained that even if an Atomical is updated or exchanged multiple times, it only amounts to a small amount of data. This makes it easy for clients, wallets, marketplaces, games, and services to verify the Atomical based on simple rules.
Bitcoin Atomicals have various use cases beyond NFTs, including web hosting, file storage, atomic swaps, real-world asset tokenization, and decentralized social media, among others. Binance Wallet’s recent update also includes support for BEVM, a decentralized Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible Bitcoin layer 2 that uses Bitcoin as gas fees for executing smart contracts.
Other exchanges have also adopted ARC-20 assets. Bitget announced in February that it supports Bitcoin Atomicals through its self-custody wallet, while OKX has a dedicated marketplace for Bitcoin Atomical assets.
Despite concerns about Bitcoin becoming technologically outdated compared to smart contract blockchains like Ethereum and Solana, it is closing the technological gap with recent innovations like Ordinals, Inscriptions, Runes, and Atomicals. Last quarter, Orders Exchange integrated the Bitcoin Runes protocol, allowing the issuance of fungible tokens on the native network and establishing a Bitcoin asset bridge with MicroVisionChain for BRC-20 token swaps.
On the other hand, SolvBTC, an omnichain yield-generating protocol, has reached a total value locked of $700 million from its yield-bearing Bitcoin minted on Arbitrum, Merlin, and BNB Smart Chain. The protocol estimates that it can generate annual returns of 5% to 10% on users’ BTC deposits.
In related news, Kraken exchange has launched its self-custody crypto wallet, following the footsteps of other centralized exchanges.