Circle Unveils New Token Aimed at Expanding Bitcoin Utility

Circle has launched cirBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin token backed 1:1 with native on-chain BTC reserves, deploying first on Ethereum mainnet and its own Arc blockchain. The move is direct: Bitcoin holds over $1.7 trillion in market cap but generates almost no DeFi activity, and Circle is positioning itself as the infrastructure layer that changes that.The institutional implication is immediate. With Bitcoin ETFs reversing m…