Circle renewed its push for cirBTC in an Aug. 12 post, calling the token neutral institutional collateral. The product, though, is not a fresh launch. cirBTC has been live on Ethereum since June 8, and at the time of review only about 40 tokens were outstanding, far below the supply levels of WBTC and cbBTC.
cirBTC exists onchain and can be minted and redeemed by eligible institutional participants, but distribution is still limited. An Etherscan contract page showed a maximum total supply of 40.01955869 cirBTC and 11 holder addresses. CoinGecko labels the asset as “preview only” and says it is unavailable on the centralized and decentralized exchanges the site tracks.
Circle says Circle Mint provides the institutional workflow for minting and redeeming cirBTC. Ethereum is the only live chain the company currently identifies for the token. Arc is the next named deployment, and Circle says broader multichain support is planned.
How cirBTC is issued and backed
According to Circle, cirBTC is issued by Circle International Bermuda Limited, which the company 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.
Circle describes Circle National Trust as a federally chartered national trust bank and qualified custodian supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. In its June launch post, the company also said the underlying BTC is segregated from Circle’s corporate assets.
A Circle reserve dashboard timestamped Aug. 11 at 8 a.m. showed 40.02159077 cirBTC in supply against 42.5070808 BTC in reserves. The dashboard lists the BTC reserve addresses and the balance of each address, giving counterparties a way to inspect the holdings directly on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Circle says cirBTC uses Chainlink Proof of Reserve instead of a monthly attestation model. Chainlink describes the system as publishing verified reserve data onchain so users and protocols can monitor whether tokenized assets remain collateralized.
Circle’s neutrality claim is framed as a commercial one, not as a statement that issuance is decentralized. The company defines neutrality as not operating a competing centralized exchange, decentralized exchange, or lending protocol. Minting and redemption still run through Circle Mint, while Etherscan identifies the cirBTC token as a proxy contract.
Still far smaller than WBTC and cbBTC
At the time of review, CoinGecko showed WBTC with 116,132 tokens in circulation and a market capitalization of $7.362 billion. Coinbase Wrapped BTC had 97,231 tokens in circulation and a market capitalization of $6.162 billion.
The incumbent wrapped Bitcoin products also have wider chain distribution. WBTC’s official site lists Ethereum, Solana, Tron, BNB Chain, Base, Kava, and Osmosis as native networks. CoinGecko lists cbBTC deployments on Ethereum, Base, Monad, Solana, and Arbitrum.
By contrast, cirBTC does not yet have a tracked CoinGecko price or market capitalization. For now, Ethereum remains the only live chain Circle identifies for the token, while support for Arc is listed as “coming soon,” subject to applicable regulatory approvals.