Circle Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over $230M Unblocked USDC in Drift Protocol Attack

Gate News message, April 17 — Circle, the stablecoin issuer, has been hit with a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts over its failure to freeze approximately $230 million in USDC stolen in the Drift Protocol attack on April 1.

Plaintiffs allege that attackers transferred the stolen USDC from Solana to Ethereum within hours using Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), without intervention from Circle. The funds were subsequently converted to ETH and transferred through Tornado Cash. The lawsuit accuses Circle of aiding and abetting conversion and negligence.

Crypto analysis firm Elliptic has previously suspected the attack may be linked to North Korea-backed hackers. The case raises questions about Circle’s role and responsibilities in monitoring and blocking suspicious cross-chain transfers.