Arc sees $90M in USDC borrowed against cirBTC in early DeFi activity

Circle’s Arc blockchain just turned three days old, and institutional borrowers have already pulled more than $90 million in USDC against deposits of cirBTC, the chain’s wrapped Bitcoin token. The figure represents a dramatic acceleration from the chain’s earliest hours. Borrowing volumes started at roughly $1.37 million shortly after cirBTC went live on September 21, then climbed to $14.3 million within days. How the plumbing works Arc is Circle’s EVM-compatible Layer 1, purpose-built for what the company calls stablecoin-native finance. The mainnet launched around mid-September 2026, and cirBTC followed on September 21 as the chain’s first major financial primitive. The token is backed 1:1 by Bitcoin held at Circle National Trust, with reserves verifiable on-chain through Chainlink Proof of Reserve. The borrowing process works through what Circle calls Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing, or DABB. Eligible Circle Mint clients deposit BTC, mint cirBTC against it, supply that cirBTC to a lending market on Morpho Blue, and then borrow USDC that settles directly to their Mint balance. Loan-to-value ratios are set by the lending protocol itself, not by Circle. One example market showed an ...