Circle revealed cirBTC in May 2026 as its institutional wrapped Bitcoin product. cirBTC is now live: Circle announced the Ethereum launch on June 8, 2026, and the cirBTC page from Circle says it is now available on Arc and Ethereum and designed for future multichain expansion. This article tracks exactly what Circle has said publicly, what remains unconfirmed, and how cirBTC's announcement-to-mainnet arc compares with wBTC (2019) and cbBTC (2024).
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Circle confirmed cirBTC in May 2026 via circle.com/cirbtc and an accompanying press release. The product is institutional wrapped BTC, 1:1 reserve-backed, now live on Arc and Ethereum, according to Circle.
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The cirBTC page from Circle says cirBTC is designed with the same foundations as USDC and EURC and is built for eligible institutional participants, including OTC desks, market makers, and DeFi protocols. Ethereum and Arc are the two networks where cirBTC is live today.
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cirBTC went live on Ethereum on June 8, 2026, per Circle. The cirBTC page from Circle now says it is live on Arc as well.
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The sequence so far: announcement in May 2026, then the Ethereum launch on June 8, 2026, per Circle, which at the time described Arc and multichain support as planned. Circle now lists cirBTC as available on Arc and Ethereum. Circle has not published a launch date for Arc on these pages, and has not named the next networks.
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cirBTC is issued by Circle International Bermuda Limited, a Class F Digital Asset Business licensed and regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority, per Circle.
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Circle Mint and related distribution services are provided by Circle Internet Financial, LLC, per Circle. The same post says the underlying BTC is custodied at a regulated Circle entity and segregated from Circle's corporate assets.
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Wrapped BTC products have followed different announcement-to-mainnet arcs. wBTC moved from concept to mainnet in roughly nine months in 2018-2019. cbBTC moved faster, with Coinbase compressing the public arc to a few months in 2024. cirBTC went live on Ethereum on June 8, 2026, per Circle.

The wBTC and cbBTC arcs are useful reference points, not predictions. Coinbase moved fastest because cbBTC piggybacked on Coinbase's existing custody, exchange, and compliance stack. cirBTC followed a similar pattern: Circle says Circle Mint provides the institutional workflow for minting and redeeming cirBTC.
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Circle has said cirBTC will expand multichain after the Ethereum and Arc launches, without naming the next networks. Likely candidates based on USDC's footprint include Base, Solana, Avalanche, and other chains where Circle already runs native USDC, but Circle has not confirmed.
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Two things make multichain expansion easier for Circle than for prior wrapped-BTC issuers. First, USDC is already deployed natively on 20+ chains, so Circle's deployment playbook is mature. Second, Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) provides a burn-and-mint primitive that cirBTC could plausibly inherit, though Circle has not confirmed a CCTP-equivalent for cirBTC. Until Circle publishes the post-mainnet roadmap, multichain timing remains unstated.
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cirBTC is designed for eligible institutional participants, including OTC desks, market makers, and DeFi protocols, per Circle. Minting and redeeming run through Circle Mint.
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This mirrors the USDC and EURC distribution model, where Circle Mint customers mint and redeem at par via Circle Mint, and retail accesses the asset on secondary venues. For cirBTC, that means OTC desks and market makers will be the first liquidity providers, lending protocols (Aave, Morpho, Sky) will likely list cirBTC as collateral once supply ramps, and corporate treasuries will use it for onchain BTC exposure. Circle has not published listing partners or initial mint allocations.
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Contact Circle through the cirBTC page from Circle, which lists cirBTC as available on Arc and Ethereum, and scope integration assumptions against Circle's USDC and EURC contract patterns.
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Practical prep: identify which of your protocol's collateral parameters would change if a Circle-issued BTC asset listed alongside wBTC and cbBTC; model the cross-chain routing implications now that cirBTC is live on Ethereum and Arc, per Circle; and watch Circle's blog for announcements of further networks.
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This article uses only Circle's public statements about cirBTC and verified public timelines for wBTC and cbBTC. The cirBTC Ethereum launch date comes from Circle.