Circle Faces Criticism Over Handling of Stolen USDC Transfers

Circle is under scrutiny following the movement of over $230 million in stolen USDC from Solana to Ethereum via the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) during Drift Protocol's $285 million exploit. According to NS3.AI, the criticism has intensified as Circle froze the USDC balances of 16 unrelated corporate hot wallets on March 23 due to a civil dispute. Data from DeFiLlama indicates that Drift Protocol's total value locked (TVL) dropped to below $250 million after the attack.