Circle Responds to the Drift Protocol Hack: USDC Freezing Must Be Executed Legally, Urges Faster Crypto Legislation

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Gate News message. On April 10, Circle Chief Strategy Officer Dante Disparte posted a response to the April 1 incident in which Drift Protocol was hacked for more than $270 million. Disparte said that Circle freezes USDC only when legally compelled to do so, not as a unilateral decision. He added that this is not a backdoor, not algorithmic monitoring, and that it reflects the rule of law in internet-native financial activities. He noted that the core issue facing open systems is that the responsiveness of legal frameworks lags behind technological progress, and that protocols, wallets, exchanges, and stablecoin issuers should treat security and accountability as shared obligations. DeFi protocols can look to the circuit-breaker mechanisms of traditional markets to develop on-chain technical protection methods. He also called for the legislative process of the U.S. GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act to codify standards for due process, property rights, and financial privacy protection into law before the next major security incident occurs.

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