Circle renewed its push for cirBTC as neutral institutional collateral in an Aug. 12 post, but the product is not a new launch. It has been live on Ethereum since June 8 and had only about 40 tokens outstanding at the time of review, compared with more than 116,000 WBTC and 97,000 cbBTC.
cirBTC exists onchain and can be minted and redeemed by eligible institutional participants, but distribution remains limited. An Etherscan page for the contract showed a maximum total supply of 40.01955869 cirBTC and 11 holder addresses. CoinGecko labels the asset “preview only” and says it is unavailable on the centralized and decentralized exchanges it tracks.
Circle says Circle Mint provides the institutional workflow for minting and redeeming cirBTC. Ethereum is currently the only live chain Circle identifies for the token; Arc is the next named deployment, with broader multichain support planned.
cirBTC is issued by Circle International Bermuda Limited, which Circle identifies as a Class F digital asset business regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority. The underlying bitcoin is held through Circle’s Bermuda affiliate and custodied by Circle National Trust for the exclusive benefit of cirBTC holders, according to Circle. The company describes Circle National Trust as a federally chartered national trust bank and qualified custodian supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
