Circle expands institutional borrowing with Bitcoin-backed USDC
USDC (USDC)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
tradersunion.com reports that Circle is allowing eligible Circle Mint clients to post Bitcoin-linked collateral to receive USDC, extending its push into tokenized financial infrastructure. Borrowed USDC deposits directly into the customer’s Circle Mint balance, while rates and liquidation thresholds are set by the outside lending market. Circle states these positions are overcollateralized, with collateral supplied via a customer-controlled wallet to third-party DeFi protocols rather than lent directly by Circle.
New York clients are excluded from this specific rollout. The move coincides with cirBTC going live on Arc on Monday, following its June launch on Ethereum. Circle says cirBTC is backed 1:1 by Bitcoin held in custody by Circle National Trust.
This launch follows the rollout of Arc mainnet, a layer-1 blockchain using USDC as its native gas token. The strategy fits a broader industry effort to give institutions access to crypto-backed borrowing without forcing them to abandon established custody arrangements.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for USDC, measured when this story was written up on 21 September 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
USDC is trading at $1.00 with a 1-hour buy ratio of 52.4%, indicating a short-term shift toward buying pressure compared to the 49.2% ratio over the past four hours. The 24-hour buy ratio sits at 48.9%, showing that buying interest has cooled slightly over the longer timeframe. Volume delta reflects this shift, with a positive $6,687,070 in the last hour contrasting against a negative $13,674,347 over four hours and a negative $37,162,193 over 24 hours. A positive volume delta means buyers are executing more trades at the ask price, while a negative delta indicates sellers are more active. The 24-hour cumulative volume delta closed at +$123,146,709, with net buying occurring in 17 of the last 24 hours.
The latest daily buy ratio of 50.2% sits at the 73rd percentile of the last 322 days, against a median of 48.4% - stronger buying than most days.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for USDC, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Over the preceding week, the average buy ratio was 49.0%, and the latest day’s ratio of 48.9% is only 0.1 points lower than that average. Spot volume for the day was 0.65x the weekly average, suggesting trading activity was subdued compared to typical days. Net buying occurred on only 2 of the 7 days in the period, and the 8-day volume delta total was -$506,814,962. This indicates that while the current hour shows a slight uptick in buying, the broader week has been characterized by net selling pressure. The current day’s volume is significantly below the weekly norm, marking it as a relatively quiet trading day for the asset.