Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has launched cirBTC on Ethereum, pushing into the wrapped Bitcoin market already dominated by BitGo's WBTC and challenged by Coinbase's fast-growing cbBTC.
cirBTC is Circle's own tokenized version of Bitcoin for Ethereum and other chains. Like other wrapped Bitcoin products, it is meant to let BTC holders use Bitcoin inside smart contract markets without selling native BTC.
Circle said in a Monday blog post, June 8, that cirBTC is backed 1 to 1 by native Bitcoin, with the underlying BTC held at a regulated Circle entity and segregated from Circle's corporate assets, though the post didn't name the specific custodian entity.
- Circle's cirBTC page separately says the token is issued by Circle International Bermuda Limited, a Class F Digital Asset Business licensed and regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
Circle said wrapped Bitcoin should be infrastructure rather than inventory, arguing that issuers shouldn't steer users toward a preferred trading venue. The company pointed out it "does not operate a competing centralized exchange (CEX), decentralized exchange (DEX), or lending protocol."
That wording puts cirBTC directly against Coinbase's Wrapped Bitcoin, also known just as cbBTC, even though Coinbase and Circle are still closely tied through USDC.
Coinbase launched cbBTC in 2024 as its own 1 to 1 Bitcoin wrapper, issued through Coinbase and supported across Base, Ethereum, Solana and Arbitrum.
- Circle and Coinbase also have a long USDC relationship.
- Circle said in its SEC filings in March 2026 that the two companies partnered through the Centre Consortium in 2018.
- In 2023, both companies updated their agreement, giving Circle sole governance of USDC.
- Coinbase received a minority equity stake in Circle and kept commercial rights around USDC distribution.
Read also: Money wins. The Hyperliquid stablecoin war ends where it started
Heated competition
The market Circle is entering is still led by WBTC, the BitGo-linked wrapped Bitcoin token launched in 2019. DeFiLlama data shows WBTC has about $7.3 billion in market cap as of press time, compared with about $5.5 billion for cbBTC.
But WBTC has been under pressure since BitGo moved the product into a multi-jurisdiction custody setup involving BiT Global, a Justin Sun-linked entity.
Coinbase later delisted WBTC and launched cbBTC, while BiT Global sued Coinbase before the legal fight was later dropped.