Circle’s cirBTC Is Live on Ethereum but Has Only 40 BTC Outstanding

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.

How the Backing Works

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.

Circle’s June launch post also said the underlying $BTC is segregated from the company’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 their individual balances, allowing counterparties to inspect the holdings on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Circle says cirBTC uses Chainlink Proof of Reserve rather than 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 commercial rather than a claim of decentralized issuance. The company defines neutrality as not operating a competing centralized exchange, decentralized exchange or lending protocol. Minting and redemption run through Circle Mint, while Etherscan identifies the cirBTC token as a proxy contract.

A Long Way From WBTC and cbBTC

CoinGecko put WBTC at 116,132 tokens in circulation and a $7.362 billion market capitalization at the time of review. Coinbase Wrapped $BTC had 97,231 tokens in circulation and a $6.162 billion market capitalization.

The incumbents also have broader chain footprints. WBTC’s official site identifies Ethereum, Solana, Tron, BNB Chain, Base, Kava and Osmosis as native networks. CoinGecko lists cbBTC deployments on Ethereum, Base, Monad, Solana and Arbitrum.

cirBTC, by comparison, does not yet have a tracked CoinGecko price or market capitalization. For now, Ethereum is the only live chain Circle identifies, while Arc support is “coming soon,” subject to applicable regulatory approvals.