Circle has added two more assets to Gateway, its product for holding one balance that can be spent on several blockchains. Since October 23, 2026, cirBTC (Circle’s wrapped bitcoin) and EURC (its euro stablecoin) sit alongside USDC. Most coverage stopped at “unified balances”. The more useful questions are what it costs to move bitcoin this way, and why that fee is the smallest cost an Indian holder would face.
What changed
Before this, a business that wanted cirBTC ready on two chains had to park inventory on both and rebalance when demand moved. Gateway replaces that with one pooled balance per asset. When a payout or order lands on another chain, Gateway burns the token on the source chain and mints it on the destination, and Circle says access comes in under 500 milliseconds after the deposit finalises.
Per Circle’s developer docs, each asset keeps its own balance and Gateway never converts between them. A cirBTC transfer has to stay cirBTC on both ends.
| Asset | Chains supported on Gateway | Gateway fee outside Arc |
|---|---|---|
| USDC | Already live across Gateway’s chains | 0.5 basis point |
| EURC | Arc, Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, Solana, World Chain | 1 basis point |
| cirBTC | Arc and Ethereum only | 1 basis point |
Fees for cirBTC and EURC are waived on Arc, Circle’s own chain, at launch, according to Blockchain.News, which reported the fee terms from the announcement. cirBTC itself is young. Crypto Briefing notes it launched on August 21, 2026, and is backed 1:1 by bitcoin held by a regulated Circle entity.
Our calculation: the fee, in dollars and rupees
One basis point is 0.01%. Using CoinGecko prices on the morning of October 24 ($80,725 and about ₹76.6 lakh per bitcoin):
| Amount moved via Gateway (off Arc) | Fee in BTC | Fee in USD | Fee in INR |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 cirBTC | 0.00001 | ~$0.81 | ~₹77 |
| 1 cirBTC | 0.0001 | ~$8.07 | ~₹766 |
| 10 cirBTC | 0.001 | ~$80.73 | ~₹7,665 |
These are Gateway fees only. Ethereum gas, deposit time and any exchange spread come on top, and Circle says its time and fee estimates aren’t guaranteed.
There’s also a catch the speed headline hides. Gateway is non-custodial, but permissionless withdrawals carry a seven-day delay, per the same announcement. So it’s fast when Circle’s normal path works and slow if you need to exit without it.
Who this is really for
This isn’t a retail product. Circle names fillers, solvers, market makers, exchanges, payment firms and custodians as the main users, plus wallet builders who want to show one balance instead of five. For those firms, cutting idle inventory on each chain matters more than any single fee.
What it means for Indian investors
cirBTC isn’t listed on Indian exchanges, so most Indian readers won’t touch it directly. If you do reach it through a self-custody wallet, three things outweigh the bridge fee:
- The 1% TDS. Selling 1 BTC on an Indian exchange triggers 1% TDS, about ₹76,600 at today’s price. That’s roughly 100 times the ₹766 Gateway fee for moving the same bitcoin.
- Swaps can be taxable. Indian rules treat the transfer of one virtual digital asset (VDA) for another as a transfer, so turning BTC into a wrapped token may be a taxable event at 30% plus cess on any gain. Our crypto tax calculator shows the worked numbers.
- Losses don’t offset. A loss on the wrapped token can’t be set off against other gains under the VDA rules. Our loss set-off calculator shows how that compares with listed shares.
To check today’s rupee price before doing the maths, see Bitcoin price in INR.
BtcMedia verdict
Gateway makes wrapped bitcoin cheaper to shuffle between chains, and 1 basis point is a low toll. But only two chains support cirBTC, the seven-day exit delay is real, and for Indian holders tax is the cost that decides whether wrapping makes sense at all, not the fee.
FAQ
What is cirBTC? It’s Circle’s wrapped bitcoin, launched on August 21, 2026 and backed 1:1 by bitcoin held by a regulated Circle entity.
How much does Gateway charge to move cirBTC? Nothing on Arc at launch, and 1 basis point elsewhere. On 1 cirBTC that’s about $8, or ₹766 at October 24 prices.
Is wrapping BTC taxable in India? It can be. India taxes transfers of one VDA for another, so check with a tax adviser before wrapping.
This article is for information only and isn’t financial or tax advice. Crypto is volatile; do your own research.