Circle declines to freeze USDC in Drift exploit as CEO Allaire warns of legal risks and ethical concerns, while expanding partnerships with major South Korean exchanges

$232M in USDC bridged through Circle's own CCTP across 100+ transactions over six hours during US business hours, and nobody pulled the lever. Weeks earlier, Circle froze 16 legitimate wallets — including DFINITY's ckETH Minter contract — in a routine civil case with no exploit involved. Allaire's "rule of law" framing falls apart once you factor in TRM and Elliptic's DPRK attribution: OFAC sanctions compliance doesn't require a court order, it requires not facilitating transfers for designated threat actors.

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