Publicly traded stablecoin issuer Circle has announced the launch of cirBTC, a new wrapped Bitcoin token backed one-to-one by native on-chain Bitcoin reserves. The product is designed to bring Bitcoin into the decentralized finance ecosystem, where holders can use their holdings for activities such as lending and borrowing. Circle argues that existing wrapped Bitcoin solutions have struggled to gain full market trust, and that its established infrastructure can fill that gap.
Rachel Mayer, Circle’s VP of product and VP of the Arc blockchain, stated that Bitcoin has remained on the sidelines of DeFi not due to a lack of demand for yield or liquidity, but because users do not trust existing wrapper products. She described cirBTC as Circle’s response: a token that is one-to-one backed, verifiable on-chain, and built on infrastructure the market already relies upon. The announcement was made via a post on X on April 2, 2026.
Circle plans to launch cirBTC first on the Ethereum mainnet and on Arc, the stablecoin-focused blockchain the company has incubated. The token will feature ready-made integrations with Circle’s dollar-backed stablecoin USDC, as well as Circle Mint, the firm’s stablecoin issuance platform. Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said the company is applying the same infrastructure that supports USDC, EURC, and USYC to the largest digital asset, with the goal of creating neutral infrastructure for new on-chain Bitcoin applications.
The wrapped Bitcoin market already features competing products, including BitGo‘s Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and cbBTC, a similar token offered by Coinbase that functions across multiple blockchains. However, both existing alternatives have faced controversy in recent years. In August 2024, the custodian of WBTC announced a partnership with BiT Global, a firm with ties to Tron founder Justin Sun, drawing criticism from portions of the crypto community wary of that connection.
Coinbase subsequently launched cbBTC, which drew its own criticism from Sun, who referred to the asset as the “central bank of Bitcoin.” Coinbase later delisted WBTC from its exchange, prompting a lawsuit from BiT Global that alleged a “predatory and unfair move.” That legal action was eventually dropped. Despite the controversy, BitGo’s WBTC remains the dominant wrapped Bitcoin product, carrying a market capitalization of nearly $8 billion, while Coinbase’s cbBTC holds a market cap of close to $6 billion.
Circle positions cirBTC as a trustworthy institutional-grade alternative, citing what it describes as its proven credibility and full-stack flexibility. The firm expects demand from institutions seeking to put their Bitcoin holdings to work through DeFi protocols and smart contracts on networks beyond the native Bitcoin blockchain. Whether cirBTC can capture meaningful market share from the two established incumbents remains to be seen. Shares of Circle, trading under the ticker CRCL, closed down 0.53% on Thursday at approximately $90.26, and have declined nearly 40% over the past six months.
Originally reported by Decrypt.
