Available only to institutional clients, Circle launches Bitcoin-backed lending service

Odaily News: Circle has launched its Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing service, allowing institutional clients to mint Bitcoin into 1:1 pegged cirBTC, which is custodied by Circle National Trust and used as collateral to borrow USDC through third-party lending protocols without having to sell their Bitcoin holdings. The first integrated protocol is Morpho, with support for Aave and others to follow. The service has been deployed on the Arc and Ethereum networks and is currently available only to institutional clients.