useRef "refers to a value, but is being used as a type here."

In my case, I renamed the file as .ts instead of .tsx. Renaming it again fixed it.

AnimatedCircle is a function, not a type. This means it cannot be used in TypeScript in place of a type, like in the generic constraint of useRef. Instead, you need to use the typeof operator to convert to a type:

const circleRef = useRef<typeof AnimatedCircle | null>(null);