cirBTC Adoption Remains Limited Despite Circle's Promotions

Circle's cirBTC has been live on Ethereum since June 8, but its adoption remains limited. At the time of review, there were only about 40 tokens outstanding, compared to over 116,000 WBTC and 97,000 cbBTC. This is despite Circle's efforts to promote cirBTC as a neutral institutional collateral.

Circle National Trust custodies the backing for cirBTC, while published Bitcoin addresses and Chainlink Proof of Reserve provide onchain visibility. The company claims that cirBTC uses Chainlink Proof of Reserve rather than a monthly attestation model. This allows users and protocols to monitor whether tokenized assets remain collateralized.

Circle's June launch post stated that the underlying BTC is segregated from the company's corporate assets, and this remains the case. The company defines neutrality as not operating a competing centralized exchange, decentralized exchange or lending protocol. However, cirBTC exists onchain and can be minted and redeemed by eligible institutional participants through Circle Mint.