$73B Circle Accused of Failing to Help Recover Stolen USDC

[fullfitlarry]

https://x.com/coinbureau/status/2075187658448679329

And so Circle is again on the limelight, but this time, it's not that good as they are being accused of refusing to help the government of the State of Wisconsin and New York.

According to the 2 state, Circle doesn't want to freeze the USCD and return the stolen funds.

What are your thoughts here? Do you think that Circle freezes the funds and return it back just like what Tether is doing?

Or you guys believed that they don't have the capacity to do that, thus it's not that they don't want, but they really can't?

[Chibit01]

This is not the first time the circle is rejecting freezing coins. It has happened in the past not because they can't, but due to their policy they said they need legal and proper court order before they can take such action, which many use to consider USDC a bit safer safer compared to USD even as all of us know they are of no difference.

Or you guys believed that they don't have the capacity to do that, thus it's not that they don't want, but they really can't?

It's also not a case of such not being possible on the protocol, as they have done freezing before not once.

Circle Froze Millions in USDC Across 16 Wallets — Now It’s Rolling It Back

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5578299.0

[shinratensei_]

This is not the first time the circle is rejecting freezing coins. It has happened in the past not because they can't, but due to their policy they said they need legal and proper court order before they can take such action, which many use to consider USDC a bit safer safer compared to USD even as all of us know they are of no difference.

Or you guys believed that they don't have the capacity to do that, thus it's not that they don't want, but they really can't?

It's also not a case of such not being possible on the protocol, as they have done freezing before not once.

Circle Froze Millions in USDC Across 16 Wallets — Now It’s Rolling It Back

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5578299.0

What baffle me to this day is how Circle froze millions in 16 wallet and then only accept court order for the freezing of USDC from exploit or hack. Isn't that strange?
Them rolling back the freezing across 16 wallets means they admitted they're wrong yet everything else need court order. Money will vanish into thin air before court order happen.

Stablecoin isn't the hacker's final destination, they'd launder it and it will become Monero. Entire process going to take only hours for the hacker, hence the requirement of court order will yield nothing.

[PostQuantumBTC]

Or you guys believed that they don't have the capacity to do that, thus it's not that they don't want, but they really can't?

I do not like to trust everything that I am seeing on X, Circle Circle has the technical capability to freeze USDC and the company can also reissue or redeem the tokens, but that can happenbonly when the government or court is involved and request Circle to do so. This does not want me to believe this X post that Circle said he can not do what we know that the stable coin company can technically do.

Edit: I have found this out to be true, but the amount is not $73B, it is 381,000 USDC from a romance scam.

[luk3Z]

Not the first time & not the last time some funds were frozen.
In "ARRR BTCZ Firo LTZ XMR ZCL ZEC" we trust - anyway it should be In XMR we trust (but diversification here is good).

[FinneysTrueVision]

This is the problem I see with centralized stablecoins. They are susceptible to governments pressuring them to censor transactions and freeze coins, in essence becoming much like CBDCs. Today, perhaps they can still get away with not taking action under certain circumstances, but I think this will be like centralized exchanges. In the beginning, having to provide KYC to trade was extremely rare. Now it is the norm as compliance standards have become stricter.

Stablecoin issuers, under the threat of losing their business, will end up following Tether’s path of becoming more subservient whenever the law requires them to be.

[noorman0]

In sustainability, the problem isn't individual intervention; regulation is intervention. Clearly, Circle will refuse to help in personal cases because they must maintain their integrity as "decentralized," but on the other hand, they also have to indulge the authorities, as that's how they've remained in existence to this day. And that's why they have a dual policy standard for handling issues.

[Dunamisx]

One of the things I dislike about issues like this is that you will only hear the beginning of the whole story without knowing how everything will be concluded at, this is why we must not risk our assets to anyone in taking custody of it because once they have taken it from us, it will be very difficult to reclaim back our coins even at any legal intervention, a good example is the same issue found in this discussion thread, many victims were not being refunded back their assets.

I think this board will be best left to the legal board for proper discussion accordingly.

[MAAManda]

Or you guys believed that they don't have the capacity to do that, thus it's not that they don't want, but they really can't?

They have the capacity to do that, some of the posts above even have evidence that Circle has done a freeze. In that case, they actually just don't want to do it & are looking for a reasonable excuse to accept.

I haven't delved into the case, but it seems the reason they don't want to return the funds is because the funds have already been liquidated by the asset thieves, so if they return the $USDC to the victims, they will lose their own money.

[Felicity_Tide]

And so Circle is again on the limelight, but this time, it's not that good as they are being accused of refusing to help the government of the State of Wisconsin and New York. 

According to the 2 state, Circle doesn't want to freeze the USCD and return the stolen funds.

I don't think i have engaged in too many discussions regarding the ability of stablecoin issuers to blacklist wallets, but after reading this, i'm just realizing how big of a deal it is. The ability to make some money invalid even though it still exists, while minting new ones, just for the purpose of trying to help those who were victims of scams, is quite scary. If you ask me, i think it's a lot of power and centralization that surrounds something as important as money.

I don't know if i'm showing the wrong concerns, but i definitely feel that my worries are valid. Because from one of the links shared above, it turns out that this same Circle has also been involved in some controversial cases.