Circle launches institutional borrowing service for USDC using Bitcoin collateral

Circle introduced Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing (DABB) on September 21, allowing eligible institutional clients to borrow USDC by using Bitcoin as collateral. The service enables institutions to access liquidity without selling their BTC holdings. The process involves tokenizing Bitcoin into cirBTC, which is then used as collateral on DeFi lending protocols. The underlying BTC is held by Circle National Trust, a federally chartered trust bank.