Circle CEO Responds to Controversy: Did Not Freeze USDC in Drift Hack Due to "Ethical Dilemma"

BlockBeats News, April 13, according to The Block, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated that Circle will not freeze USDC wallets unrelated to legal processes.

Speaking at a press conference in Seoul on Monday, Allaire responded to ongoing community criticisms regarding whether the company should freeze USDC funds in hacking and exploit incidents.

The controversy escalated earlier this month: the decentralized finance protocol Drift suffered an attack of around $280 million, believed to be related to a 6-month-long, complex social engineering attack possibly involving a North Korea-related hacking group.

Prominent on-chain analysts, including ZachXBT, publicly criticized Circle for allegedly not freezing around $230 million in USDC funds. These funds were reportedly transferred from Solana to Ethereum via Circle's cross-chain transfer protocol.