Circle Announces cirBTC: Wrapped BTC Competition

Circle's cirBTC Launch and Institutional Targets

Stablecoin issuer Circle announced plans to launch its own wrapped Bitcoin version cirBTC, targeting institutional users. The asset, starting on the Ethereum blockchain, will be backed 1:1 by Bitcoin (BTC detailed analysis) and is designed for OTC desks, market makers, and lending protocols. Circle stated that the asset offers institutions a highly secure and neutral wrapped BTC. It will also launch on Circle's layer-1 blockchain Arc and Circle Mint platform in addition to Ethereum.

cirBTC Competition in the Wrapped BTC Market

cirBTC will compete with BitGo's WBTC (approximately $8 billion market value, 119,157 tokens in circulation) and Coinbase's cbBTC launched in September 2024 ($5.9 billion market value, 88,800 tokens). The total supply of WBTC and cbBTC is approximately 208,000 BTC according to CoinGecko data. Other exchanges' wrapped BTC variants (Kraken's KBTC, Gate's GTBTC, Binance's BBTC, Huobi BTC, and OKX's XBTC) are far behind in terms of market share.

WBTC supply has declined over the past few years. Source: Dune

BTC Technical Outlook and Support Resistances

BTC is currently at 66,569.20 USD level, in a downtrend with -0.04% change in 24 hours. RSI 42.66, Supertrend bearish, EMA 20: 68,435.55. Strong supports: S1 65,000 (⭐ STRONG, -2.35%), S2 62,909.86 (⭐ STRONG, -5.49%). Resistances: R1 68,167 (⭐ STRONG, +2.40%), R2 74,412 (+11.79%). Wrapped assets like cirBTC will play a critical role in managing BTC's futures volatility. Follow for BTC spot analysis.