HostWBTC vs ALETH — price, size and safety, side by side
WBTC (Ethereum) vs ALETH (Optimism) — every figure is the freshest dated measurement we hold for that token, never a live-feed guess. Prices stamped 2026-10-17 / 2026-10-17.
WBTC vs ALETH — normalized performance, 2026-09-21 to 2026-10-17T03:15:24
| WBTC | ALETH | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $81.15K | $2.36K |
| Market cap | $9.63B | $20.45M |
| 24h volume | $185.99M DEX | $38.35K DEX |
| Liquidity | $220.70M | $2.21M |
| FDV | $9.63B | $4.29M |
| Holders | 197,266 | 4,163 |
| Age (days) | 1,583 | 1,199 |
| Safety grade | C | B |
Where they differ
- WBTC measures ~471× the market cap of ALETH
- WBTC measures ~100× the liquidity of ALETH
- WBTC measures ~4,850× the 24h volume of ALETH
- WBTC measures ~47× the holder count of ALETH
- over the shared window WBTC moved −3.36% while ALETH moved −10.5%
What the data says
WBTC
WBTC is the original wrapped Bitcoin — the ERC-20 that put BTC on Ethereum's DeFi rails in 2019, custodied by BitGo with a mint-and-burn pipeline run through KYC'd merchants. The deployment 0x2260fac5e5542a773aa44fbcfedf7c193bc2c599 is the canonical mint, one of the oldest contract addresses in DeFi; our October 9, 2026 snapshot reads $220.7 million of tracked pool liquidity on this pair set — a slice of a float that spans every major venue.
The honest frame is unchanged since launch: holding WBTC means trusting BitGo's custody — the reserve is attested and the mint pipeline is transparent, but the claim is institutional, not cryptographic. Coinbase's cbBTC arrived as the regulated-competitor answer; the two trade the same BTC exposure with different custodians, and the depth split between them is the market's live verdict on whose custody it prefers.
ALETH
ALETH at 0x3e29d3a9316dab217754d13b28646b76607c5f04 is Alchemix's ETH claim on Optimism — the ether-denominated sibling of the protocol's self-repaying dollar, a receipt whose backing is a yield-bearing ETH position. The October 9, 2026 snapshot prices a $20.5 million asset-wide market cap against a $4.3 million fully-diluted read of the local float — and that float is just 1.7 thousand claims, a small book by any measure.
Inside the small book the depth is real: $2.2 million of tracked pool liquidity reads deep against the local float, on $68.1 thousand of 24-hour volume. The record runs 1,181 days — the same vintage as its dollar sibling, both surviving deployments of a protocol that has long since gone through its hype cycle.
FAQ
Which is bigger, WBTC or ALETH?
By tracked market cap: WBTC (Ethereum) measures $9.63B and ALETH (Optimism) measures $20.45M — dated snapshots, not a live feed.
Which is safer, WBTC or ALETH?
On the contract checks we publish: WBTC (Ethereum) grades C and ALETH (Optimism) grades B. A grade is a structural check on the contract, not a promise about the asset.
How have WBTC and ALETH performed over the shared window?
Between 2026-09-21 and 2026-10-17T03:15:24, the measured snapshots show WBTC at −3.36% and ALETH at −10.5%.
The grade column is the one CMC's compare page cannot print — our grade is computed from the contract itself (mint/freeze authority, liquidity, holder concentration). Changes are measured over the shared window stated on the chart, 2026-09-21→2026-10-17T03:15:24; a token with fewer measured points measures a shorter span inside it.
Figures are dated on-chain snapshots, not a live feed. Safety grades are structural checks — not investment advice. Free · no signup · a HostDeFi product.