Circle introduced the Mint service for eligible institutional customers on Sept. 21. It lets them turn deposited bitcoin into cirBTC collateral and receive borrowed $USDC in their Mint balance without selling the bitcoin. Morpho supplies the lending protocol; Circle’s announcement says borrowing rates, collateral requirements and liquidity depend on the selected third-party market.
The figures describe outstanding market debt, rather than cumulative loan originations. A second Arc market with the same cirBTC collateral and $USDC loan asset held only about $15,000 of additional borrowings.
Galaxy Remains a Large Supplier
Galaxy’s $USDC vault remains a substantial source of funding. Morpho’s allocation record showed approximately $89.8 million allocated to the main cirBTC market. Its relative allocation cap permits exposure up to 100% of the vault’s assets.
The higher borrowing balance increases the dollars exposed to bitcoin-backed loans, but market utilization is not a measure of borrowers’ proximity to liquidation. The 86% threshold applies to each position’s debt relative to its collateral, not to the percentage of the lending pool that has been borrowed.
Circle’s separate reserve dashboard, dated Oct. 12, reported 6,164.96 cirBTC outstanding: 5,318.28 on Arc and 846.68 on Ethereum.