Ren

Ren, originally launched as the Republic Protocol, is an open protocol that enables the movement of assets in a private, permissionless, and trustless manner between various blockchains. Its core product, the RenVM (Ren Virtual Machine), allows users to lock assets like Bitcoin on one chain and mint a 1:1 backed ERC-20 token (like renBTC) on another, primarily Ethereum, thereby bringing non-native assets into the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. The project was acquired by Alameda Research in 2021. Following the collapse of Alameda and FTX in late 2022, development funding ceased, leading to the planned shutdown of Ren 1.0. The project's control has since transitioned to the community and is being managed by the Ren Foundation, which is focused on developing and launching the new community-run Ren 2.0.