Circle is advancing two separate parts of its digital-asset business: cirBTC, a 1:1 Bitcoin-backed wrapped token, surpassed 5,000 tokens after rising from roughly 40 in mid-August 2026, while Binance invested $100 million in Circle shares under a new five-year commercial agreement to promote and integrate USDC. cirBTC gives holders access to lending, borrowing and other decentralized finance (blockchain-based financial services) strategies without selling Bitcoin. Each token is backed by one native Bitcoin held by Circle National Trust, a federally chartered trust bank, with Chainlink Proof of Reserve providing real-time on-chain verification. Around September 24, 2026, circulating supply was approximately 4,300.68 tokens against roughly 4,448.19 BTC in reserves. Users mint and redeem cirBTC through Circle Mint using the same APIs as USDC, and the token is available on Ethereum mainnet and Arc, Circle’s Layer 1 blockchain. Binance’s expanded partnership, first announced in December 2024, has increased Binance’s USDC-quoted spot markets from 140 to 329 and lifted monthly USDC trading volume from $20 billion-$40 billion to consistently above $80 billion. Kaiko said Binance captured the largest share of USDC spot trading activity throughout 2026, processing $5 million-$10 billion in daily volume, roughly 10 to 20 times more than most other venues. USDT remains larger, with a market capitalization of about $140 billion versus roughly $74 billion for USDC. Circle is also expanding its Circle Payments Network and has announced a $400 million acquisition of Singapore-based Tazapay, as Visa, Mastercard and Stripe increase their stablecoin payments and infrastructure activity.