Key takeaways:
- USD Coin stablecoin issuer Circle refuted allegations of illegal funding and connections to Justin Sun, the founder of Tron.
- Disparte writes in the letter that Circle “recently became aware” of the so-called Campaign for Accountability’s “false” assertions about it.
In an open letter published on Circle’s blog on November 30, USD Coin stablecoin issuer Circle refuted allegations of illegal funding and connections to Justin Sun, the founder of Tron. In the past, a nonprofit watchdog group claimed that Circle was connected to Sun.
Although the post was updated on November 30 after being published on November 11, chief strategy officer and head of public policy at Circle, Dante Disparte, signed the letter written to Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown of the United States.
Disparte writes in the letter that Circle “recently became aware” of the so-called Campaign for Accountability’s “false” assertions about it. The letter also states:
“Circle does not facilitate, directly or indirectly, or finance Hamas (or any other illicit actors).”
Furthermore, according to Disparte, it doesn’t “bank” or offer financial services to Sun. The allegations that Circle enabled “major flows of funds to Hamas or Hezbollah” were rejected by Disparte, who asserted that the claims were based on unsubstantiated, unverified social media posts.
The letter claimed that just $160 in USDC had been moved between illicit wallets and that none of the money had come from Circle. Additionally, Disparte asserted that Circle ceased serving Sun in February 2023, saying:
“Neither Mr. Sun nor any entity owned or controlled by Mr. Sun, including the TRON Foundation or Huobi Global, currently have accounts with Circle. To date, the U.S. government has not specifically designated Mr. Sun or his entities as Specially Designated Nationals. Nonetheless, Circle terminated all accounts held by Mr. Sun and his affiliated companies in February 2023.”
The open letter from Circle seems to have been written in response to a letter from the nonprofit ethics organization Campaign for Accountability dated November 9.
In that letter, the organization asserted that Sun’s cross-chain protocol, SunSwap, is frequently used for money laundering and that Circle has close ties to both Sun’s Tron Foundation and significant Wall Street investors.
Since the Israeli-Hamas conflict started on October 7, there have been numerous claims that cryptocurrency is being used to fund terrorism.
The Wall Street Journal revealed on October 10 that terrorist organizations have received donations of “over $130 million” in cryptocurrencies. Afterward, the media outlet changed its report to say that $12 million in cryptocurrency “may have been” supplied to these organizations.
