📌 #Circle is being sued for failing to freeze assets to prevent the $280M hack of Drift
Drift Protocol was hacked for ~$280M. The hacker bridged most of the USDC to Ethereum via Circle's CCTP. Everything happened publicly on-chain.
Investors filed a class action lawsuit, accusing Circle of not intervening despite having sufficient tools. The plaintiff alleges: “Circle allowed the use of its technology for criminal purposes. These damages would not have occurred, or at least could have been significantly mitigated, if Circle had acted in a timely manner".
In response to the criticisms raised, Circle's CEO Jeremy Allaire stated that the company only freezes assets when there is an official request from law enforcement or a court.
Previously, Circle had frozen 16 USDC wallets in another civil case just days before the Drift incident, even freezing $57M $USDC related to the memecoin LIBRA. Clearly, Circle has the technical capability to intervene when necessary.
Selective decentralization.
Drift Protocol was hacked for ~$280M. The hacker bridged most of the USDC to Ethereum via Circle's CCTP. Everything happened publicly on-chain.
Investors filed a class action lawsuit, accusing Circle of not intervening despite having sufficient tools. The plaintiff alleges: “Circle allowed the use of its technology for criminal purposes. These damages would not have occurred, or at least could have been significantly mitigated, if Circle had acted in a timely manner".
In response to the criticisms raised, Circle's CEO Jeremy Allaire stated that the company only freezes assets when there is an official request from law enforcement or a court.
Previously, Circle had frozen 16 USDC wallets in another civil case just days before the Drift incident, even freezing $57M $USDC related to the memecoin LIBRA. Clearly, Circle has the technical capability to intervene when necessary.
Selective decentralization.