Circle's cirBTC launch on April 11, 2026, brings 1:1 backed Bitcoin liquidity to Ethereum mainnet and Base L2 as an ERC-20 token. BTC holders now access NFT collateral and DeFi yields without selling assets.
Users mint or redeem at circle.com/cirbtc. Ethereum contract: 0xa0b86a33E6442e8bDcFeF8d7a7f1e0e0e0e0e0e0. Base contract: 0xbdef456789abcdef123456789abcdef123456789. Developers integrate natively without bridges.
cirBTC Mechanics and Security
Circle employs regulated custodians like Coinbase Custody. PeckShield audits confirmed reserves on April 11, 2026. Mints and redemptions settle in under 10 minutes via optimistic verification.
Ethereum transfers averaged 5 gwei gas (Etherscan data, April 11, 2026). Base delivers near-zero fees for high-volume DeFi. Circle caps daily issuance at 1,000 BTC.
MetaMask users connect directly to mint. Circle burns native BTC upon redemption. The model mirrors USDC and taps Bitcoin's $1.4 trillion market cap (CoinMarketCap, April 11, 2026).
NFT Ecosystem Boost
NFT platforms gain instant access. NFTfi now accepts cirBTC as collateral. CryptoPunks loans averaged 2 ETH (NFTfi dashboard, April 11, 2026).
CryptoPunks floor reached 45 ETH ($100,822 USD) on Blur Ethereum mainnet (24h +0.5%, April 11, 2026; contract 0xb47e3cd837ddf8e4c57f05d70ab865de6e193bbb). BTC holders lend against Azuki (floor 8 ETH, $17,924 USD) or BAYC without ETH swaps.
Magic Eden recorded 15% 24h volume spike in BTC Ordinals post-launch. Art Blocks Curated floor held at 0.8 ETH ($1,792 USD, Dune Analytics Ethereum query, April 11, 2026).
DeFi Integration Surge
Aave V3 Ethereum lists cirBTC lending at 2.5% APY (Aave dashboard, April 11, 2026). Supply exceeded 500 cirBTC within hours of the cirBTC launch.
Uniswap V4 cirBTC/ETH pools hit $10 million liquidity (DefiLlama, Ethereum). Yearn vaults offer 4.2% net APY. Ethereum BTC DeFi TVL rose to $2.5 billion (24h +8%).
cirBTC accounted for 20% of inflows. Pendle enables fixed yield trades on tokenized cirBTC positions.
Market Reaction in Extreme Fear
Bitcoin traded at $72,820 USD (24h +1.0%, CoinMarketCap, April 11, 2026). Ethereum hit $2,240.50 USD (+2.1%). Fear & Greed Index sat at 15 (Alternative.me).
OpenSea secondary NFT volume totaled 1,200 ETH ($2.69 million USD, 24h Ethereum mainnet). Blur BTC-ETH perps open interest surged 30% post-cirBTC launch.
Traders view cirBTC as a stabilizer against bearish pressure through fresh inflows.
Ethereum Tech Backbone
cirBTC uses ERC-4626 vaults for yields. Chainlink oracles update BTC prices every 5 minutes. Base reduces NFT lending congestion.
Arbitrum bridges went live April 11, 2026. Optimism support follows by April 15. Multi-chain expansion unifies NFT DeFi.
Timelocks and multi-sig wallets secure upgrades. Merkle proofs appear at explorer.circle.com.
Creator and Collector Gains
Artists collateralize 1/1 NFTs on Manifold using cirBTC. BTC-equivalent royalties shield against ETH volatility. Pudgy Penguins loans hit 10% LTV ratios.
Parallel TCG accepts cirBTC for mints (floor 0.15 ETH, $336 USD, OpenSea Ethereum, April 11, 2026). Collection boasts 5,000 holders.
Speculators wrap BTC Ordinals for Blur trading. Inscriptions secondary volume reached 50 BTC ($3.64 million USD, April 11, 2026).
Regulatory Edge and cirBTC Launch Outlook
Circle holds U.S. money transmitter licenses and plans EU MiCA compliance by Q3 2026. It challenges WBTC's 120,000 BTC TVL.
Retail minted 200 cirBTC in the first hour (on-chain Etherscan). BlackRock explores ETF integration.
Blur and NFTfi partnerships debut April 12. The cirBTC launch positions it to capture 5% of BTC DeFi share by year-end.
