{"id":83760,"date":"2026-06-01T08:39:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T01:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/circle-freezes-12-6m-of-usdc-linked-to-privacy-protocol-zama\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T08:39:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T01:39:35","slug":"circle-freezes-12-6m-of-usdc-linked-to-privacy-protocol-zama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/circle-freezes-12-6m-of-usdc-linked-to-privacy-protocol-zama\/","title":{"rendered":"Circle freezes $12.6M of USDC linked to privacy protocol Zama"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Stablecoin issuer Circle froze $12.6 million in USDC dollar-pegged tokens linked to privacy protocol Zama\u2019s confidential USDC smart contract on Saturday, according to onchain sleuth ZachXBT.<\/p>\n

The smart contract is \u201cpublicly labeled\u201d on block explorers and the privacy protocol\u2019s technical documentation, ZachXBT said<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The exact reason for the freeze is \u201cunclear,\u201d he said, adding<\/span><\/a> that wallets linked to the Overnight Finance decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol deposited $12.4 million into the Zama protocol on May 11, 2026. He said:<\/p>\n

\u201cOvernight Finance held a governance vote recently to distribute treasury funds after holders alleged the team was rug-pulling. Regardless, it’s precedent-setting to unilaterally freeze the contracts or addresses of a protocol where funds have been commingled with Zama users.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/figure>\n

Source: <\/em>ZachXBT<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my understanding, the Zama team does not appear to have been notified of the Circle freeze prior,\u201d he said. Cointelegraph reached out to Circle but did not receive a response by the time of publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company has come under fire for failing to freeze funds<\/span><\/a> following major hacks of crypto platforms, and freezing wallets of legitimate crypto projects and protocols without giving those projects prior notice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related: <\/strong><\/em>Tether freezes over $500M of USDT in 30 days, BlockSec data shows<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Circle comes under fire for freezing legitimate user funds, but not stolen crypto <\/h2>\n

In March, ZachXBT accused Circle of \u201cwrongfully\u201d freezing 16 stablecoin wallets<\/span><\/a> linked to online casinos and legitimate crypto exchanges.<\/p>\n

The wallets were frozen in connection with ongoing civil court cases in the United States; however, the businesses and wallets \u201cdo not appear related at all,\u201d he said<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

He later added that Circle failed to freeze about $420 million <\/span><\/a>in 15 separate cases involving fraudulent transactions or funds stolen through crypto hacks since 2022.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

A list of 15 incidents since 2022, in which Circle failed to freeze funds, according to ZachXBT. Source: <\/em>ZachXBT<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

These incidents included the failure to freeze $232 million<\/span><\/a> in stolen user funds from the April 2026 Drift Protocol hack, despite having a six-hour window to act, he said.<\/p>\n

Following the incident, users filed a class action lawsuit<\/span><\/a> against Circle for failing to freeze the funds, which flowed through Circle\u2019s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), a bridge that allows assets to move between different blockchain networks.<\/p>\n

Magazine: <\/strong><\/em>Are DeFi devs liable for the illegal activity of others on their platforms?<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph\u2019s Editorial Policy<\/a> and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stablecoin issuer Circle froze $12.6 million in USDC dollar-pegged tokens linked to privacy protocol Zama\u2019s confidential USDC smart contract on […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":83762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tien-dien-tu"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}