The move puts Circle directly into the Wrapped Bitcoin market, where Coinbase and BitGo already have products in play.
Stablecoin giant Circle is moving into the Wrapped Bitcoin space with cirBTC, a token it says will be backed 1:1 by BTC▲$65,682.00, focused on institutions and verifiable on-chain, according to a Thursday announcement, April 2.
With an initial launch on Ethereum and Arc, a Layer-1 blockchain developed by the company, the product is being pitched first to big customers, including OTC desks, market makers and lending protocols. Circle says the rollout is still subject to regulatory approvals, so it hasn’t given a launch date.
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How Big Wrapped Bitcoin Is and What It Is
Wrapped Bitcoin is basically Bitcoin packaged for use on smart contract networks such as Ethereum. The first major version, called WBTC, was launched on Ethereum in January 2019 after being announced in 2018 with Kyber Network and Ren (formerly Republic Protocol). BitGo handled custody of collateral.
The basic idea is pretty straightforward. Users lock up BTC and companies issue a 1:1 tokenized version for them so those wrapped tokens could be used across decentralized finance, also known as DeFi. That lets users put wrapped tokens to work in lending, borrowing, liquidity provision and collateral, without giving up exposure.
It’s also worth noting that “wrapping” is not limited to Bitcoin. Other altcoins, including Ethereum and BNB▲$616.26, have wrapped versions too, but the market for Wrapped Bitcoin is much larger. As of press time, the total market cap of wrapped tokens is over $28 billion, per data from CoinMarketCap.
Who Circle’s Competitors Are In Wrapped Bitcoin
Circle’s move into Wrapped Bitcoin puts it into a lane where other companies like Coinbase and BitGo already have products of their own.
The even bigger wrinkle appears to be the corporate overlap. Coinbase took an equity stake in Circle in 2023 when the two reworked their USDC▼$0.9997 arrangement. Moreover, Coinbase also launched cbBTC in 2024, its own Wrapped Bitcoin backed 1:1 by BTC and built for use in DeFi on Base, the exchange’s Layer-2 built on Ethereum.
BitGo, which started out as a crypto custodian, launched WBTC back in 2019 and says it has been used for lending, collateralization, margin trading and derivatives.
