Circle to Launch cirBTC Wrapped Bitcoin for Institutions

Circle, a stablecoin issuer, announced the launch of cirBTC, its own wrapped Bitcoin designed for institutional investors. This move positions Circle to compete with established players like BitGo’s Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and Coinbase Wrapped Bitcoin (cbBTC) in providing Bitcoin liquidity to decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. cirBTC will be initially available on Ethereum, Circle’s Arc blockchain, and its Circle Mint platform, offering a 1:1 backing with Bitcoin. While cbBTC currently holds a $5.9 billion market capitalization with 88,800 tokens, and WBTC leads with approximately $8 billion and 119,157 tokens, Circle aims to provide a “highly secure and neutral version” of wrapped BTC to institutions increasingly interested in DeFi. Several other exchanges have also launched their own wrapped Bitcoin versions, but their market caps remain significantly smaller than those of WBTC and cbBTC.

(Source：Cointelegraph)