Circle Freezes USDC in 16 Business Hot Wallets Tied to Undisclosed U.S. Civil Case

BlockBeats reported on March 25 that on-chain investigator ZachXBT said Circle has frozen USDC balances held across 16 hot wallets used by several companies. The action is linked to an ongoing U.S. civil lawsuit, though specific details have not been made public. ZachXBT said one affected company confirmed the freeze directly. According to ZachXBT, the wallets appear to belong to operators spanning exchanges, casinos, forex and other businesses, with no obvious ties between them. He questioned whether Circle conducted sufficient due diligence before acting on the freeze requests. The wallets are described as active operational hot wallets used to process high volumes of customer transactions. The freeze has reportedly disrupted day-to-day business operations.