Circle CEO Says Freeze-and-Seize Tools Give Stablecoins an Edge Over Correspondent Banking

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire says stablecoin infrastructure can freeze and seize assets in ways correspondent banking cannot. The claim lands after a roughly $6.3 billion hack at Binance.

Allaire spoke on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street program on Wednesday. Circle (CRCL) relies on Binance, the breached exchange, as a core distribution channel for its USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin.

Does the Circle CEO’s Freeze Claim Hold Up?

Allaire said Circle’s infrastructure carries regulatory-required tools to freeze and seize assets on blockchain networks. He added that correspondent banking, the web of bank-to-bank accounts that moves money across borders, offers no such option.

It was reported that Circle has frozen more than $1.1 billion in USDC since the Oct. 29 attack. Yet blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said about $3.24 billion of stolen crypto sits in wallets tied to the theft.

The exposure is direct for Circle, which expanded its Binance deal to five years in September. Binance bought $100 million of Circle shares alongside it.

Is Binance Recovering, and Will Rules Follow?

Allaire said Binance has started to see net deposits return. He rejected any comparison with the FTX run.

“There’s nothing like that at all happening here.”

Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, via CNBC

However, Reuters reported net withdrawals of $4.72 billion through Monday, about 3% of platform assets, Binance said.

Allaire tied faster attacks to artificial intelligence (AI) agents, software that acts on its own. Meanwhile, Binance traced the breach to two engineers’ compromised computers, one reached through a fake job interview.

Allaire said the breach will influence future regulation. Custodia Bank CEO Caitlin Long expects US regulators to push for built-in stablecoin freeze rules.

Still, freeze powers cannot reach coins that have no issuer, such as Bitcoin (BTC). That limit may temper how far regulators lean on Allaire’s argument.