Circle CEO responds to controversy, stating that USDC was not frozen due to the "ethical dilemma" in the Drift hacking incident

According to The Block, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated that Circle will not freeze USDC wallets unrelated to legal proceedings.

At a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, on Monday, Allaire responded to ongoing online criticism regarding whether the company should freeze USDC funds in light of hacking and vulnerability incidents. The controversy became more pronounced earlier this month when the decentralized finance protocol Drift suffered an attack of approximately $280 million, which is believed to be related to a six-month-long attack carried out through complex social engineering techniques, possibly involving a North Korean-affiliated hacking group.

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