- Circle stated it could quickly launch cirBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin token designed to unlock DeFi utility whereas addressing belief points round current wrappers.
- Backed 1:1 by native Bitcoin reserves and constructed for interoperability, cirBTC goals to make BTC extra accessible for yield, liquidity, and broader decentralised finance use instances.
A wrapped Bitcoin token designed to unlock institutional use of Bitcoin holdings in decentralised finance (DeFi) past the BTC community will quickly be launched by stablecoin issuer Circle.
The NYSE-listed firm behind the world’s second-largest stablecoin, USDC, introduced its plan to concern a Circle Wrapped Bitcoin token — cirBTC — through an X publish on the morning of April 2, US time.
No agency particulars have been supplied about when cirBTC will launch.
Circle’s VP of product, Rachel Mayer, stated cirBTC was the corporate’s reply to institutional customers’ reticence to speculate or apply Bitcoin holdings through DeFi apps.
$1.7T of bitcoin is sitting on the sidelines of DeFi. Not as a result of folks don’t need yield or liquidity, it’s as a result of they don’t belief the wrapper.
$WBTC is at present the most important wrapped Bitcoin token, with a market cap of US$7.9 billion (AU$11.4 billion) on the time of writing, in keeping with CoinMarketCap information. The Bitcoin reserves behind WBTC are managed by BitGo, which has a partnership with BiT International, an organization that’s partially owned by controversial determine Justin Sun.
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A Safe Wrapped BTC Choice for Establishments
cirBTC will probably be 1:1 backed by BTC reserves that may be independently verified onchain. Whereas the token will probably be interoperable throughout chains, it’ll first launch on Ethereum and Circle’s personal EVM-compatible layer 1 — Arc — which launched in late 2025.
Arc is purpose-built for constructing stablecoin-native functions with USDC as native gasoline. Circle’s new wrapped BTC token may even combine with the dollar-backed USDC, and its USDC minting service for institutional clients, Circle Mint.
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Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said that bringing Circle’s trusted infrastructure to the globe’s largest digital asset would create “a impartial infrastructure for brand spanking new functions for onchain BTC.”
The corporate stated its impartial and safe model of wrapped Bitcoin would notably profit OTC desks, market makers, and lending protocols that depend on tokenised BTC.
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