Stablecoin Issuers Prove Their Value in Crisis
Tether, Circle, Ripple, and World Liberty Financial froze $2.39B+ in stablecoins within 40 minutes of the hack, reigniting debate about centralized freeze powers — and broadly validating them in the eyes of the crypto community.
What we know
Within approximately 40 minutes of the first hot wallet drains, Tether froze $1.567B USDT and Circle froze $800M+ USDC. Paolo Ardoino leaned into the irony of freeze critics suddenly celebrating the capability: 'Plebs: Tether will freeze your funds! Plebs after exchange hacked: Can Tether freeze the funds?' The broader community response was positive — 'Tether is the most positive force in this industry' was widely shared. An account on X noted how fast industry leaders acted, with Ethena also posting reassurance within 30 minutes. CZ thanked World Liberty Financial's Zach Witkoff for freezing $27M in USD1. Ripple's freeze of $200M RLUSD was also confirmed. These actions reduced the effective net loss from $5.8B to approximately $1B.
Sources
“Tether, Circle and World Liberty Financial have frozen more than $2.39 billion in stablecoins linked to the suspected Binance hack.”
View post →By the Global Eye 24 desk, with AI assistance. Updated as the story develops. Spot an error? Write to corrections@globaleye24.com.