[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee (이윤서)] Circle's bitcoin tokenisation product cirBTC is already operating on Ethereum, but its circulating supply remains at about 40 BTC.

On Aug. 12 (local time), blockchain media outlet The Defiant reported that Circle highlighted cirBTC again that day as a neutral collateral tool for institutions. The product is not new, and has been running on Ethereum since June 8.

Market adoption of cirBTC remains limited. Based on Etherscan, the contract's maximum total supply was 40.01955869 cirBTC, and the number of holder addresses was tallied at 11. CoinGecko also classifies the asset as "preview only" and says it cannot be traded on the centralised exchanges and decentralised exchanges (DEX) it tracks.

Circle said it supports institutional participants in issuing and redeeming cirBTC through Circle Mint. The only network Circle says it currently supports is Ethereum. Arc was presented as the next deployment target, and Circle plans to expand multichain support. Arc support may vary depending on whether relevant regulatory approval is obtained.

The issuance structure is also designed for an institutional product. cirBTC is issued by Circle International Bermuda Limited, a federally chartered national trust bank and qualified custodian supervised by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The underlying bitcoin is held through a Bermuda affiliate, and custody is handled by Circle National Trust solely for cirBTC holders, it explained.

As of 8 a.m. on Aug. 11, the reserve dashboard displayed a cirBTC supply of 40.02159077 tokens and reserves of 42.5070808 BTC. The dashboard also discloses bitcoin reserve addresses and individual balances so counterparties can verify holdings directly on the bitcoin blockchain. Circle said it uses Chainlink proof of reserves instead of a monthly attestation format.

The "neutrality" Circle stressed does not mean decentralisation of the issuance structure. Circle defined it as not directly operating competing centralised exchanges, decentralised exchanges and lending protocols. In practice, issuance and redemption of cirBTC are carried out through Circle Mint, and Etherscan identifies the cirBTC token as a proxy contract.

The scale gap is large compared with existing bitcoin tokenisation products. Based on CoinGecko data, WBTC has a circulating supply of 116,132 tokens and a market capitalisation of $7.362 billion. Coinbase's cbBTC posted a circulating supply of 97,231 tokens and a market capitalisation of $6.162 billion.

There is also a difference in the range of supported networks. WBTC is supported on Ethereum, Solana, Tron, BNB Chain, Base, Kava and Osmosis. cbBTC is deployed on Ethereum, Base, Monad, Solana and Arbitrum.

By contrast, cirBTC still has no price or market capitalisation tracked on CoinGecko. With limited supply and restricted distribution channels, it remains to be seen whether Circle's institutional collateral strategy will translate into a real gain in market share. Future points to watch are whether Arc deployment happens, multichain expansion, and how quickly the limited institution-focused distribution structure expands.