Circle Launches Bitcoin-Backed USDC Borrowing for Institutions on Arc and Ethereum

Circle launched Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing for Circle Mint’s institutions, enabling these institutions to use BTC as collateral against their USDC liquidity while remaining in control of their BTC rather than selling it.

It was announced in a September 21 statement discussing Circle Mint’s support of several third-party decentralized lending markets on Arc and Ethereum.

Users who deposit native Bitcoin mint Circle Wrapped Bitcoin (cirBTC), which the institution moves to a user-controlled Smart Wallet, posts it as collateral on supported lending protocols, and borrows USDC against the collateral.

The borrowed stablecoins are then automatically transferred from the wallet to the customer account at Circle Mint. Morpho was the first lending protocol supported by the protocol at the time of launch.