Circle announced cirBTC, an institutional wrapped BTC backed 1:1 by native Bitcoin with onchain reserve verification, launching first on Ethereum and Arc. This guide is for builders. It walks through the five most common integration surfaces (wallet add-token, DEX LP pair, lending listing, OTC settlement, exchange listing), plus Circle Mint API access for enterprise issuance partners and the SDKs Circle is expected to ship at general availability.
cirBTC is not live yet. Status from circle.com/cirbtc is "coming soon, subject to regulatory approvals." Treat contract addresses, oracle feeds, and SDK names below as expected patterns drawn from how Circle ships USDC and EURC. Confirm against the official cirBTC documentation when Circle opens it.
What you need before integrating cirBTC
Answer: the cirBTC contract address on your target chain, a Chainlink Proof of Reserve feed, a price oracle, and (for issuance partners) a Circle Mint API account with cirBTC enabled.
At launch, cirBTC will exist as an ERC-20 on Ethereum mainnet and as a native token on Arc, Circle's L1. Mint and redeem flows happen through authorized participants who custody native BTC with Circle's custody partners and receive cirBTC in return. Everything downstream (wallets, DEXs, lenders, OTC desks, CEXs) consumes cirBTC as a standard ERC-20 with two extras: a Proof of Reserve feed and an integration with Circle's compliance APIs for institutional flows.
Integration 1: wallets (ERC-20 add-token flow)
Answer: add cirBTC to your token list with the official Ethereum and Arc contract addresses, 8 decimals (matching BTC), the cirBTC logo from Circle's brand assets, and a link to Circle's Proof of Reserve dashboard.
For self-custody wallets (MetaMask, Rabby, Phantom, Trust, Coinbase Wallet), the integration is the standard ERC-20 add-token path:
Submit a PR to the wallet's token list repo (for MetaMask, this is the Ethereum token-lists registry).
Provide chain ID, contract address, symbol cirBTC, decimals 8, and a 256x256 PNG logo.
For richer UX, surface the Proof of Reserve feed directly in the asset detail view (Chainlink PoR is expected, matching how Circle exposes USDC reserves).
Smart-account wallets (Safe, Coinbase Smart Wallet, Argent) can pre-list cirBTC in default token registries. For wallets supporting gasless transfers via ERC-2612 permit, confirm cirBTC inherits the same permit support Circle ships on USDC.
Estimated time: 1 to 3 days from contract publication to wallet visibility, depending on token-list review queues.
Integration 2: DEXs (LP pair creation)
Answer: create the canonical cirBTC/WETH and cirBTC/USDC pools on Uniswap V3 or V4 (and chain-equivalent DEXs), seed with $1M+ depth, and set the fee tier to 0.05% for stable BTC-pegged routing or 0.3% for BTC/USD pairs.
On Ethereum, the most liquid wrapped-BTC pools today are WBTC/WETH on Uniswap V3 at 0.3% and cbBTC/USDC pools on Uniswap V4. cirBTC will need analogous pools. Steps:
Deploy pools through the Uniswap V4 PoolManager (or V3 factory) with cirBTC as token0 or token1 sorted by address.
Seed initial liquidity. For market makers, $5M to $10M is enough to anchor routing aggregators (1inch, 0x, CoW Swap, Matcha).
Submit cirBTC to aggregator token lists so routes auto-include the new pools.
On Arc, the canonical DEX (Circle has signaled native DeFi primitives on Arc) will host cirBTC/USDC and cirBTC/EURC pools.
For Curve and Balancer, a cirBTC/WBTC/cbBTC three-pool is the obvious add. It lets BTC-denominated swaps stay onchain without touching CEXs.
Estimated time: same day for pool deployment, 1 to 2 weeks for aggregator inclusion and meaningful TVL.
Integration 3: lending protocols (oracle + risk parameters)
Answer: propose a cirBTC market via the protocol's governance forum with a Chainlink price feed, a Chainlink Proof of Reserve feed, an LLTV around 80% to 86%, and an initial borrow cap sized to 10% to 20% of cirBTC's onchain supply.
For Aave V3, the path is a temp check on governance.aave.com followed by an ARFC (Aave Request for Final Comment) with risk parameters from Chaos Labs or LlamaRisk. Expected initial params for cirBTC mirror what Aave shipped for cbBTC: 73% LTV, 78% liquidation threshold, 5% liquidation bonus, supply cap of a few thousand cirBTC scaling with onchain liquidity. See our breakdown of cirBTC for lending protocols for protocol-by-protocol expected params.
For Morpho Blue, anyone can permissionlessly deploy a cirBTC/USDC market with a chosen LLTV and oracle. Curators (Gauntlet, MEV Capital, Steakhouse) then route vault deposits into it.
Sky (formerly MakerDAO) collateral onboarding requires a Spell vote and is slower (8 to 12 weeks). Spark, Sky's lending market, will move faster once the underlying Sky vault is approved.
Oracle setup: every lending integration needs both a USD price feed (Chainlink cirBTC/USD, expected) and a Proof of Reserve feed (Chainlink PoR over Circle's attested BTC reserves). The PoR feed lets protocols pause borrowing if reserves diverge from supply.
Estimated time: 4 to 12 weeks depending on protocol governance velocity.
Integration 4: OTC desk settlement flow
Answer: wire cirBTC into your settlement engine as a stable BTC-denominated leg, add a Circle Mint connection for mint/redeem, and use cirBTC for cross-venue settlement instead of moving native BTC.
OTC desks (Cumberland, Galaxy, FalconX, B2C2, Wintermute) settle large BTC trades today by moving native Bitcoin or wBTC. Native BTC is slow (10 to 60 minutes for safe confirmations). wBTC requires trust in BitGo and BiT Global. cirBTC offers a third option: Circle-issued, attested reserves, ERC-20 transfer speed, and direct mint/redeem with Circle for in-kind BTC settlement.
Integration steps:
Add cirBTC as a settleable asset in your OMS/PMS (order and position management systems).
Open a Circle Mint account with cirBTC enabled (expected at GA).
Wire the Circle Mint API into the desk's treasury automation so dealers can convert BTC to cirBTC and back programmatically.
For block trades, settle counterparty legs in cirBTC onchain, then optionally redeem to native BTC at end of day.
This pattern compresses settlement from hours to minutes and removes the need to maintain hot BTC inventory across counterparty chains.
Estimated time: 2 to 6 weeks for OMS plumbing plus Circle Mint onboarding.
Integration 5: exchange listing
Answer: file a listing application with cirBTC's contract addresses, Circle's compliance attestations, audited reserves, and proposed trading pairs (cirBTC/USDC, cirBTC/USDT, cirBTC/BTC).
For centralized exchanges (Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, OKX, Bybit, Gemini), the listing path is:
Submit a listing form with token economics, contract addresses, legal opinion, and audit reports (Deloitte attests Circle's reserves).
Provide deposit/withdrawal node infrastructure references for Ethereum and Arc.
Negotiate initial trading pairs. cirBTC/USDC is the natural anchor.
Coordinate listing announcement with Circle's launch communications.
For DEX-only listing, no application is needed. LP pair creation (Integration 2 above) is sufficient.
Estimated time: 4 to 16 weeks for tier-1 CEX listing.
Circle Mint API for enterprise issuance partners
Answer: Circle Mint is Circle's enterprise issuance and redemption portal. Authorized participants for cirBTC will use the Circle Mint API to programmatically mint cirBTC against deposited BTC and redeem cirBTC for BTC.
The existing Circle Mint API (documented at developers.circle.com) supports USDC and EURC mint/redeem against wire transfers. For cirBTC, expect an analogous flow with BTC deposits replacing fiat wires:
Authorized participants deposit native BTC to Circle's custody addresses (BitGo, BiT Global, or Circle's own qualified custodian).
POST to /v1/cirbtc/mints with the deposit reference and destination chain (Ethereum or Arc).
Circle mints cirBTC to the specified address.
Redemption reverses the flow: POST to /v1/cirbtc/redemptions with the burn transaction and a BTC payout address.
Authorization requires a Circle Mint enterprise account with cirBTC enabled. Onboarding includes KYB, source-of-funds review, and a compliance agreement covering BTC handling. See how cirBTC minting works for the end-to-end authorized-participant flow.
Expected SDKs
Answer: Circle is expected to extend its existing TypeScript, Python, and Go SDKs to cover cirBTC mint/redeem, and to publish a smart-contract SDK with cirBTC ERC-20 ABI bindings and Proof of Reserve helpers.
@circle-fin/developer-controlled-wallets already supports USDC. cirBTC will likely slot in as another supported token.
@circle-fin/circle-sdk (and Python equivalent) handles Mint API calls. cirBTC mint/redeem endpoints will be added.
cirBTC contract package: expect a published npm package (similar to @circle-fin/usdc-contract) with ABIs for Ethereum and Arc deployments, plus helpers for the Chainlink PoR feed.
Arc SDK: Arc-specific SDK for cirBTC's native presence on Circle's L1, including any non-EVM helpers Arc exposes.
Integration matrix: vertical, what's needed, time, example
Integration | What's needed | Time | Example |
Wallet add-token | Contract address, decimals (8), logo, token-list PR | 1 to 3 days | MetaMask, Rabby, Coinbase Wallet |
DEX LP pair | Pool deployment, $1M+ seed, aggregator listing | Same day to 2 weeks | Uniswap V4 cirBTC/USDC, Curve tri-BTC pool |
Lending market | Chainlink price + PoR feeds, governance proposal, risk params | 4 to 12 weeks | Aave V3, Morpho Blue, Spark |
OTC settlement | OMS plumbing, Circle Mint API, treasury automation | 2 to 6 weeks | Cumberland, Galaxy, FalconX block trades |
CEX listing | Listing application, compliance docs, node infra | 4 to 16 weeks | Coinbase, Kraken, Binance cirBTC/USDC |
Circle Mint issuance | Enterprise account, KYB, BTC custody integration | 6 to 12 weeks | Authorized participants minting cirBTC |
How does Eco Routes fit in?
Answer: once cirBTC is live on Ethereum and Arc, Eco Routes can move cirBTC across the 15 chains it supports, so applications integrating cirBTC don't have to handle bridging themselves.
If you're building a wallet, DEX, or lending app that wants cirBTC available on chains beyond Ethereum and Arc at launch, Eco Routes orchestrates cross-chain transfers via its solver network. Users hold cirBTC on the chain that matters to them; the orchestration layer handles the cross-chain leg. Circle is the issuer; Eco is the cross-chain transport.
Common questions
What's the cirBTC contract address?
Not yet published. Circle will release Ethereum and Arc contract addresses at launch. Watch circle.com/cirbtc and Circle's developer docs for canonical addresses. Do not trust addresses circulated before official publication.
Does cirBTC support ERC-2612 permit?
Expected yes, matching USDC's implementation. Confirm against the deployed contract when cirBTC goes live.
How many decimals does cirBTC use?
Expected 8 decimals, matching native BTC. This differs from USDC (6 decimals). Integrators must handle the decimal difference when converting between cirBTC and USDC.
Can anyone mint cirBTC?
No. Mint and redeem are restricted to Circle Mint enterprise account holders that pass KYB and compliance review. Secondary-market access (buying cirBTC on DEXs or CEXs) is open to anyone.
What oracle should lending markets use for cirBTC?
Chainlink cirBTC/USD price feed plus Chainlink Proof of Reserve over Circle's attested BTC reserves. Both feeds are expected at GA based on how Circle integrated Chainlink for USDC.
Methodology and sources
Drafted from Circle's cirBTC announcement (circle.com/cirbtc, May 2026), Circle developer documentation (developers.circle.com) for Mint API patterns extrapolated from USDC and EURC flows, Aave and Morpho governance precedent for prior wrapped-BTC listings (cbBTC, wBTC), and Uniswap V4 PoolManager documentation. All cirBTC-specific parameters are expected patterns pending Circle's official integration documentation at GA.