Circle launches Bitcoin-backed USDC borrowing for institutional clients
Circle is bringing Bitcoin-backed borrowing to institutional clients, allowing them to tap BTC holdings for USDC liquidity without selling their Bitcoin.
Circle is bringing Bitcoin-backed borrowing to institutional clients, allowing them to tap BTC holdings for USDC liquidity without selling their Bitcoin.
Stablecoin issuer Circle has launched a Bitcoin-backed borrowing service for institutional clients, allowing eligible Circle Mint customers to use BTC as collateral to borrow USDC through onchain lending markets.
The service, called Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing, lets customers deposit Bitcoin, mint Circle’s wrapped Bitcoin token cirBTC and supply it as collateral to supported third-party lending markets on Arc or Ethereum. Morpho is the first lending protocol supported, with Circle planning to add Aave and other protocols. The rollout coincides with cirBTC going live on Arc on Monday.
Both launches come days after Circle rolled out the Arc mainnet, its layer-1 blockchain targeting stablecoin payments and financial markets. Arc uses USDC as its native gas token and supports tokenized assets including BlackRock’s BUIDL and Circle’s USYC.