Institutions Can Now Borrow Against Their Bitcoin Holdings

Circle has launched a Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing feature on its Circle Mint platform, giving eligible institutions a way to unlock USDC liquidity while keeping their BTC position intact.

The feature, which went live on September 2, 2026, allows institutions to deposit BTC into Circle Mint, which gets wrapped into cirBTC, a tokenized version backed 1:1 by BTC held in custody at Circle National Trust. The resulting USDC loan settles directly back into the borrower's Circle Mint account.

The workflow has three steps: an institution deposits BTC into Circle Mint, the BTC gets wrapped into cirBTC, and then serves as collateral inside Morpho vaults. Chainlink's proof-of-reserves verification underpins the cirBTC backing, giving lenders on the other side of the trade an on-chain confirmation that the collateral is real and accounted for.

The service is not available to clients based in New York. On Arc's launch day, Morpho vaults backed by cirBTC drew over $150 million in USDC and EURC deposits.