cirBTC Hits Ethereum with Limited Distribution
Circle's cirBTC is now live on Ethereum, but it has only about 40 tokens outstanding, compared to over 116,000 WBTC and 97,000 cbBTC. This limited distribution does not mean cirBTC is a new launch; it has been available since June 8. Circle describes the token as neutral institutional collateral, which is backed by regulated Class F digital asset business Circle International Bermuda Limited.
The underlying $BTC is held through Circle's Bermuda affiliate and custodied by Circle National Trust, a federally chartered national trust bank and qualified custodian supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. This setup allows counterparties to inspect the holdings on the Bitcoin blockchain via a Circle reserve dashboard.
CirBTC uses Chainlink Proof of Reserve rather than a monthly attestation model, which publishes verified reserve data onchain so users and protocols can monitor whether tokenized assets remain collateralized. Circle claims neutrality by not operating a competing centralized exchange, decentralized exchange or lending protocol, but this is more commercial than decentralized issuance.
Circle Mint provides the institutional workflow for minting and redeeming cirBTC, and Ethereum is currently the only live chain Circle identifies for the token; Arc support is 'coming soon', subject to applicable regulatory approvals. The maximum total supply of cirBTC is 40.01955869 tokens, with 11 holder addresses.