Circle has taken a significant step in expanding its offerings by introducing cirBTC, a new wrapped bitcoin product backed by native BTC reserves. This move marks an important development in the company's growth beyond stablecoins into tokenized bitcoin infrastructure.
The key feature of cirBTC is that each token will hold full collateral in native bitcoin reserves, which can be verified onchain in real-time. Circle has emphasized its commitment to transparency and trust by stating that it will not rely on third-party attestations or opaque custodians.
Circle has designed cirBTC with institutions in mind, aiming to address their concerns about custody and transparency. The company cited the significant figure of over $1.7 trillion in bitcoin held outside decentralized finance, attributing this gap to trust issues in existing wrapped bitcoin products.