Circle, the issuer of the $USDC stablecoin, has expanded access to its Circle Wrapped Bitcoin (cirBTC) on Ethereum. In its official announcement, Circle has announced that cirBTC is now available to all Circle Mint LLC customers. This way, Circle is providing institutions with a regulated way to bring $BTC into Ethereum-based decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.
cirBTC is now live on Ethereum for all Circle Mint LLC customers.
The underlying BTC is custodied by Circle National Trust, a federally chartered national trust bank and qualified custodian supervised by the OCC.
What’s next: Circle is building toward a simple, unified workflow… pic.twitter.com/lVsMibkhmH
— Circle (@circle) August 17, 2026
Circle stated in the annoncement on X that the Bitcoin backing cirBTC is held by Circle National Trust. Circle National Trust is a federally chartered national trust bank and qualified custodian supervised by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The development highlights Circle’s focus on providing institutional-grade custody for tokenized Bitcoin.
cirBTC Connects Bitcoin with Ethereum Smart Contracts
cirBTC is a tokenized version of $BTC. It is designed to represent native $BTC on Ethereum. Each cirBTC is backed 1:1 by Bitcoin held in segregated custody. It provides exclusive benefits to token holders. The underlying assets are also kept separate from Circle’s corporate assets. This structure allows institutions to use Bitcoin within Ethereum-based smart contracts without directly selling their BTC holdings.
Circle has also indicated that reserves can be monitored through Chainlink Proof of Reserve. Multi-address transparency allows counterparties to inspect the associated Bitcoin holdings on-chain. Minting and redemption of cirBTC are handled through Circle Mint.
Circle Plans Broader Bitcoin and USDC Integration
Circle introduced cirBTC on Ethereum in June 2026. The company is now also working toward a more integrated workflow. Circle will allow users to deposit Bitcoin, mint cirBTC, and borrow USDC through Circle Mint and its Arc blockchain. The company also plans to expand cirBTC to Arc and pursue support across multiple blockchain networks.
cirBTC’s circulating supply is small compared with established tokenized Bitcoin products such as WBTC and Coinbase’s cbBTC. Circle has limited cirBTC as an institutional-focused and neutral alternative rather than an operator of a competing exchange or lending platform.