TL;DR
- ZachXBT accused Circle of failing to act on hacks tied to North Korea and other exploits, leaving millions in USDC unfrozen.
- Arthur Hayes revealed that Circle paid $900 million to Coinbase in 2024 for USDC distribution and claimed Jeremy Allaire operates under its influence.
- Although ZachXBT trusts Circle more than Ripple, he continues to publicly question its transparency and incident management.
ZachXBT sharply criticized Jeremy Allaire and Circle’s leadership following the company’s highly successful IPO, which pushed its valuation close to $80 billion. According to Zach, Circle’s management shows no genuine concern for the crypto industry, something he highlighted through the company’s poor response to security incidents involving its USDC stablecoin.
The analyst pointed out that Circle failed to freeze 115,000 USDC linked to a hack attributed to North Korea, while Tether blocked 106,000 USDT connected to the same theft. He also questioned the company’s inaction after a $40 million exploit where over 9 million USDC remained unfrozen for several hours, allowing attackers to bridge funds across networks. Despite the accusations, neither Circle nor Jeremy Allaire issued any public response.
Circle leadership does not actually care about the industry
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) July 14, 2025
ZachXBT Isn’t Alone in Calling Out Circle
The company’s relationship with Coinbase has also faced scrutiny. Arthur Hayes claimed Jeremy Allaire operates under the influence of Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s CEO, and revealed that Circle paid $900 million to Coinbase in 2024 as part of a revenue-sharing agreement linked to USDC distribution. Although Circle took full control of the project in 2023, Coinbase retained a minority stake and continues to receive half the income generated by USDC reserves, regardless of whether those assets sit on its platform.
Hayes explained that distributing a stablecoin involves heavy operational costs, and exchanges typically demand equity or a share of interest margins to support such tokens. Coinbase found in Circle the stablecoin it needed for its U.S. and Western European users, since USDT faces regulatory scrutiny in those markets.
Despite expressing slightly more trust in Circle than in other firms like Ripple, ZachXBT remains a persistent critic of the company’s lack of transparency and accountability.
