Circle, a New York-based stablecoin issuer best known for USDC, has launched cirBTC on Ethereum.

The wrapped bitcoin token is backed 1:1 by BTC and is meant to let holders use bitcoin in decentralized finance applications such as lending, decentralized exchanges, tokenized assets, and stablecoins.

Wrapped bitcoin tokens exist because Bitcoin’s network has historically lacked the programmability for many decentralized finance functions available on networks such as Ethereum.

The market leader is Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), launched in 2019, with a market capitalization of about US$7.3 billion. Coinbase’s cbBTC, introduced in 2024, has just under US$5.4 billion.

Circle said it is targeting institutions that are familiar with the company and trust its infrastructure.

The broader synthetic bitcoin token market is worth about US$12.5 billion to US$13.5 billion, or roughly 1% of bitcoin’s approximately US$1.25 trillion value.

🔗 Source: CoinDesk

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