Circle Launches cirBTC, Ethereum Adds 1:1 Bitcoin-Backed Wrapped Asset

TechFlow News: On June 9, Circle announced the launch of cirBTC on Ethereum, according to official sources. cirBTC is a wrapped Bitcoin asset backed 1:1 by native BTC, designed for on-chain financial use cases such as lending protocols, over-the-counter (OTC) trading, market making, treasury management, and settlement—enabling institutions to use their BTC as collateral without selling it.

Circle stated that the underlying BTC is held in custody by regulated entities and is segregated from Circle’s corporate assets. cirBTC reserves will be verifiable on-chain via Chainlink Proof of Reserve. The product has initially launched on Ethereum, with plans to expand to the Arc network and broader multi-chain ecosystems in the future.