Overview
- ZachXBT’s report, published Friday, alleges Circle failed to freeze or blacklist more than $420 million in suspect USDC flows across about 15 cases since 2022.
- The Drift Protocol exploit drained roughly $285 million as the attacker bridged about $232 million in USDC through Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol over six hours without an on-chain freeze.
- Circle says it freezes assets only when required by a court or law enforcement order and describes that approach as consistent with the rule of law and user protections.
- Investigators compare Circle’s pace to rivals and note cases where Tether froze stolen tokens faster during major incidents such as the Ledger and Remitano attacks.
- A separate March 23 freeze of 16 operational business wallets in a sealed U.S. case, followed by at least one reversal, has intensified questions about how Circle decides when to block addresses.