在钱包被封锁而被盗资金转移后，Circle 的 USDC 冻结权力面临新的审查

Circle's biggest selling point may be becoming its biggest liability. On-chain investigator ZachXBT's “Circle Files” allege that the USDC issuer has inconsistently applied its freeze powers. Circle was too slow in 15 cases involving more than $420 million in allegedly illicit funds since 2022, yet broad enough to sweep 16 operational business wallets in a sealed US civil matter. The wallets were tied to exchanges , casinos, and forex services that ZachXBT said did not appear connected. Why this matters: USDC is a core settlement asset in crypto, widely used by exchanges, traders, payment flows, and DeFi protocols. Circle’s freeze decisions extend beyond individual legal disputes or hack responses and set the boundary for how much operational risk businesses accept when holding or moving dollars on-chain. The firm later unfroze at least one of those wallets, belonging to Goated.com, adding weight to the question of how precisely Circle reviews the addresses it blocklists. That sequence of “slow on theft, sweeping on civil process” lands at a difficult moment. USDC held roughly $77.2 billion in circulation as of April 3, in a total stablecoin market of nearly $316.8 billion, accounting for about 24.5% of that pool. One of the cases ZachXBT cites, the Drift exploit , saw more than $280 million in USDC move across 100-plus transactions in roughly six hours. Related Reading Circle under fire as $230M in stolen USDC flows unblocked days after freezing legitimate accounts The Drift exploit exposes a growing contradiction in how stablecoin issuers enforce control during crises. Apr 3, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo At that scale and speed, the gap between “can freeze” and “froze in time” is the entire practical question. A bar chart shows 16 operational wallets frozen in a sealed civil matter against 15 alleged slow-action theft cases totaling $420 million since 2022. The legal stack Circle built Circle's control surface has real on-chain teeth. Its EVM stablecoin contract incl