Circle Mint LLC has announced the launch of Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing (DABB), a new capability enabling eligible institutional customers to access USDC stablecoin liquidity using bitcoin (BTC) as collateral. The service, now available on both the Arc and Ethereum networks, allows corporate treasuries and institutional holders to generate dollar-denominated funds without having to liquidate their long-term BTC holdings, Circle said in a blog post.
The service unifies several previously fragmented steps into a single coordinated workflow within the user’s account. Clients deposit BTC to mint Circle Wrapped Bitcoin (cirBTC), supply the cirBTC as collateral to integrated third-party lending markets via a wallet under their control, and directly receive the borrowed USDC into their Circle Mint balance. Once the borrowed USDC is repaid, the cirBTC collateral is released back to the user.
The tokenized asset used in the framework, cirBTC, is structured specifically as an institutional-grade collateral token. Each cirBTC token is backed on a 1:1 basis by native bitcoin, with reserves held under custody at Circle National Trust—a federally chartered trust bank and qualified custodian—and subject to independent onchain verification. Circle emphasized its strategic neutrality in launching the asset, as the firm does not run a competing exchange or lending protocol, aiming instead to make cirBTC widely usable across diverse venues and institutional systems.
DABB launches across two supported blockchain networks, offering distinct operational features. The Arc network integrates cirBTC and USDC into specialized stablecoin infrastructure designed to offer competitive borrowing rates, while Ethereum provides immediate connection to deep, established decentralized finance liquidity pools. Access to borrowing is overcollateralized and determined by collateral parameters rather than standard credit underwriting, allowing clients to manage positions and repayments on their own timetables.
Morpho serves as the initial third-party lending protocol integrated into the DABB workflow at launch. Circle plans to expand the service to additional decentralized credit platforms—including Aave—and across other blockchain networks in future updates as part of its broader multichain strategy.
