Circle (CRCL) debuts cirBTC on Ethereum to challenge Coinbase (COIN) in the wrapped bitcoin market
Circle has launched cirBTC, a wrapped version of bitcoin on Ethereum, backed 1:1 by BTC and designed for use in DeFi applications such as lending, DEXs, tokenized assets, and stablecoins. The move puts Circle in direct competition with Coinbase and BitGo in the synthetic bitcoin market. Wrapped bitcoin exists because Bitcoin lacks the native programmability needed for DeFi, unlike Ethereum. The largest synthetic BTC token remains wBTC, with about $7.3 billion in market cap, while Coinbase’s cbBTC has nearly $5.4 billion. Circle is targeting institutions that already trust its infrastructure from USDC, the second-largest stablecoin at over $75 billion in market cap. Combined synthetic bitcoin tokens total roughly $12.5 billion to $13.5 billion, only about 1% of bitcoin’s total value.
