Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, dismissed concerns that USDC could be used for Iranian cryptocurrency transit fees in the Strait of Hormuz.
Aller made the remarks at a press conference in Seoul on the afternoon of April 13, where BeInCrypto East Asia Editor-in-Chief Euhyun Kim was in attendance. Allair will visit South Korea this week to meet with stock exchanges, banks and regulators.
Hormuz Tariffs: “Extremely Unlikely” for USDC
A reporter asked if Iranian Revolutionary Guard May accept USDC for Hormuz toll. Allaire rejected the idea.
“Circle operates a very compliant infrastructure,” he said.
He noted that the company works closely with law enforcement and sanctions authorities.
Allaire pointed to public research from United Nations Forensic companies. This data shows that sanctioned actors tend to prefer other stablecoins over USDC. He did not mention specific signs.
“It is highly unlikely that a sanctioned regime would try to do something where the likelihood of assets being immediately frozen would be very high,” he said.
Drift Hack: Circuit Defend Delay Freeze
$285 million Exploiting protocol drift On April 1, she harshly criticized the department. The attackers plugged more than $230 million in USDC stolen from Solana into Ethereum over the course of six hours. The department did not take any action to freeze the funds during that period.
Allaire said the company follows strict legal obligations. Circle can only freeze wallets upon the direction of law enforcement or the courts.
“We as a company don’t decide what the right path is,” he said. He warned that allowing a private company to make those calls creates a “very significant ethical dilemma.”
He acknowledged that there is a gap in the current framework. The department is pushing for The law of clarity To include “safe harbours” that would allow issuers to proactively freeze funds under extreme circumstances.
“We need it to be in the law, not just what we decide for ourselves,” he said.
The law of clarity: banning revenue will not harm the department
Allaire also addressed the proposed CLARITY Act ban on negative stablecoin returns. The bill would prevent platforms from paying interest simply for holding stablecoins.
He said the change does not affect the department directly. the The law of genius It actually prevents issuers of stablecoins from paying interest to holders.
The real impact falls on distributors such as exchanges and wallets. They can still offer activity-based rewards, but they cannot market stablecoin collectibles as alternatives to bank deposits.
Allaire described the debate over the return as “exaggerated.” He noted that the vast majority of stablecoin holders around the world do not receive any rewards at all. Nearly half of the global M2 money supply of $120 trillion is held in cash or non-interest bearing accounts.
Visit Korea: Stock exchanges, banks and regulation
Allaire spent several days in Seoul where he met with major exchanges, financial groups and regulators. Upbit operator Dunamu and Bithumb signed memorandums of understanding with Circle on the same day. He also met with executives from Shinhan, Hana and KB Financial.
Circle does not plan to issue a Korean won stablecoin itself, he said.
Korean law would likely require consortiums led by local banks to play this role. Instead, Circle will offer its technology stack to local exporters.
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