Bitcoin's market cap sits well above a trillion dollars, yet only a small slice of that supply moves through Ethereum, Solana, or any of the chains where lending, perps, and yield actually happen. Wrapped Bitcoin is how BTC gets there. In 2026 the wrapped BTC market is no longer a single-token story. Circle's announcement of cirBTC adds a stablecoin-grade institutional wrapper to a landscape that already includes wBTC, cbBTC, tBTC, FBTC, and a handful of smaller variants. This guide compares the major options side by side, with issuer, custody model, supply, supported chains, and DeFi integrations for each.
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Wrapped Bitcoin is an ERC-20 (or equivalent) token on a non-Bitcoin chain that is redeemable, in theory or practice, for native BTC. Custody can be centralized (a regulated entity holds the BTC), federated (a multi-sig of operators), or decentralized (threshold cryptography). The wrappers compared here all target 1:1 backing with native BTC reserves.
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Circle announced cirBTC in 2026 as its institutional wrapped BTC, built on the same compliance and transparency principles Circle uses for USDC and EURC. cirBTC is 1:1 backed by native BTC, with reserves verifiable onchain.
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At launch, cirBTC will deploy on Ethereum and Arc, Circle's L1. The target audience is OTC desks, market makers, lending protocols, and treasuries that already integrate USDC and want a Circle-issued BTC instrument with the same regulatory posture. cirBTC is "coming soon, subject to regulatory approvals," with a waitlist open at circle.com/cirbtc.
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wBTC launched in 2019 and remains the largest wrapped BTC by supply. BitGo is the original custodian. In 2024 BitGo restructured custody to add BiT Global as a second custodian across multiple jurisdictions. Merchants mint and burn wBTC against BTC reserves through an authorized merchant network.
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wBTC is live on Ethereum and bridged to most major L2s, Polygon, Solana, Tron, and others. It is the deepest source of wrapped BTC liquidity in Aave, Morpho, Curve, and Uniswap, although share has eroded as cbBTC and FBTC scaled.
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Coinbase issued cbBTC in September 2024. Backing comes from BTC held in Coinbase's institutional custody. cbBTC is live on Ethereum, Base, and Solana, with Coinbase Prime clients minting and redeeming directly.
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cbBTC grew quickly on Base, where it became the dominant BTC representation, and is integrated into Aave, Morpho, and Compound as collateral. The trade-off is that holders rely entirely on Coinbase as custodian, with no merchant federation or onchain attestation beyond Coinbase's own reporting.
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tBTC is issued by Threshold Network using threshold ECDSA cryptography. A signer group of independent node operators holds the BTC, and no single party can move reserves. Minting and redemption are permissionless.
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tBTC supply runs around half a billion dollars in 2026 and is live on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Polygon, and several other L2s. Integrations include Aave (via specific markets), Curve, and Threshold's own Bitcoin DeFi stack. It is the default pick when the priority is custody decentralization rather than depth of liquidity.
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FBTC is issued by Antalpha Prime in partnership with Mantle. It targets institutional desks with onchain proof of reserves and a network of authorized participants for mint and burn. FBTC supply has crossed $1.5B and is concentrated on Mantle, Ethereum, and BNB Chain.
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FBTC integrations skew toward Mantle-native protocols, with growing footprints in Aave, Pendle, and lending markets that pay for BTC collateral.
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BlackRock's BUIDL is a tokenized money market fund, not a wrapped BTC product. There is no BUIDL-BTC token in market as of May 2026. Etherfi's eBTC is a liquid restaking style wrapper that uses tBTC and other BTC representations as backing, sitting one layer above raw wrapped BTC. We exclude it from the direct comparison table because the backing is itself wrapped BTC.
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Supply figures track DeFiLlama's tokenized BTC category. Treat them as snapshots, not contracts.
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Redemption mechanics split the field. wBTC, cbBTC, FBTC, and cirBTC all route through authorized participants or direct custodian relationships. End users typically swap on a DEX rather than redeem directly. tBTC supports permissionless redemption from any holder back to native BTC via the Threshold signer set, which is its core differentiator.
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Aave lists wBTC across most deployments, cbBTC on Ethereum and Base, and tBTC on selected markets. Morpho accepts wBTC and cbBTC widely, with custom vaults for FBTC. Sky (formerly MakerDAO) uses wBTC as a long-standing collateral type. cirBTC integrations will be a function of how quickly lending DAOs vote in a new collateral once Circle launches; expect Aave and Morpho to move first given existing Circle relationships.
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Eco Routes is a cross-chain orchestrator. When cirBTC goes live on Ethereum and Arc, Eco Routes can route cirBTC alongside USDC across supported chains, so applications integrating cirBTC do not need to build per-chain plumbing. This is complementary to Circle's own cross-chain stack, not a replacement.
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For deepest liquidity today, wBTC still wins. For Base-native applications, cbBTC is the default. For decentralized custody, tBTC. For Mantle and institutional desks needing onchain proof of reserves outside Coinbase or BitGo, FBTC. For teams already standardized on Circle's USDC stack and willing to wait for launch, cirBTC will become the natural fit.
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cirBTC details from Circle's announcement at circle.com/cirbtc. Supply and chain coverage from DeFiLlama's tokenized BTC category. wBTC custodian structure from BitGo and BiT Global public disclosures. cbBTC details from Coinbase's launch documentation. tBTC mechanics from Threshold Network docs. FBTC details from Antalpha Prime and Mantle announcements. All figures are approximate snapshots as of May 2026.
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