21.co adds Chainlink Proof of Reserve for 21BTC transparency

21.co has integrated Chainlink Proof of Reserve on Solana and Ethereum mainnets to enhance transparency for its Wrapped Bitcoin (21BTC). This move automates real-time reserve verification and enables secure minting of 21BTC.

“21Shares and Chainlink have played fundamentally important roles in ensuring the adoption of a more secure blockchain infrastructure, and we’re excited to see 21Shares integrate Chainlink Proof of Reserve to support 21BTC,” Johann Eid, Chief Business Officer at Chainlink Labs, stated.

Eid added that Proof of Reserve has a role in enabling a secure minting function, which is a key step to creating a reliable framework that allows for the tokenization of trillions of dollars in value.

21BTC, launched on Solana in May 2024 and expanded to Ethereum in September 2024, is a native token fully backed 1:1 by Bitcoin reserves held in cold storage and institutional custody. Chainlink Proof of Reserve provides on-chain updates on the status of these BTC reserves.

“The industry-standard Chainlink Proof of Reserve is critical for providing transparency into the reserves backing 21BTC, helping to secure its minting function and supporting its widespread adoption across the Solana and Ethereum ecosystems,” Eliezer Ndinga, Head of Strategy and Business Development, Digital Assets at 21.co, added.

Ndinga also highlighted the necessity of a secure minting function, a feature that gives users greater assurances that 21BTC is fully backed by BTC 1:1.

The integration offers several benefits, including programmatic utility, increased confidence through secure minting, decentralization, and transparency. Users can independently verify asset collateralization in real time.