🚨Bitcoin just became more useful for institutions without needing to be sold. Circle ($CRCL ) has launched Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing for eligible Circle Mint customers, allowing institutions to deposit BTC, mint cirBTC, use it as collateral in supported lending markets, and borrow USDC directly back into their Circle Mint balance. The key point: Institutions can unlock dollar liquidity without selling their Bitcoin exposure. At launch, the product supports Arc and Ethereum, with Morpho as the first approved third-party lending protocol. Circle says additional protocols, including Aave, are expected to follow. That creates a powerful capital-efficiency loop: Hold BTC → use BTC as collateral → borrow USDC → deploy liquidity → keep BTC exposure. And cirBTC itself is backed 1:1 by native BTC, with reserves designed to be independently verifiable onchain. This is bigger than just another lending product. It pushes Bitcoin closer to becoming institutional-grade collateral inside onchain credit markets. $BTC used to sit idle. Now institutions can make it work without selling it. 👀 #CircleLaunchesInstitutionalBTCBackedBorrowing #BitcoinHits$85K #ZetaChainVotesToMigrateZETAToSolana #ECBStartsBlockchainEuroSettlement #SolanaCutsTargetSlotTimeTo250ms