11 months ago
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Denies CfA’s claims
Circle, Inc., which provides the US dollar stablecoin USDC, submitted an open letter to Senator Sherrod Brown and others. He denies any involvement in financing the Islamic organization Hamas or with Justin Sun, the founder of the crypto asset (virtual currency) Tron (TRX).
This refutes the allegations made by the US nonprofit organization Campaign for Accountability (CfA).
CfA sent a letter to Rep. Brown and Sen. Elizabeth Warren on November 9, alleging that crypto companies such as Circle may be involved in terrorist financing.
The background is that in July 2023, the Israeli authorities issued an asset seizure order to the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and at that time, approximately 13.7 billion yen was seized in three stocks of Circle Inc., USDC, TRX, and USDT. It notes that it has identified wallets holding more than ($93 million).
It also pointed out that TRON founder Sun has been accused of selling unregistered securities and wash trading by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Despite this, Circle also said it continues to have a business relationship with Sun.
What is wash trade?
Transactions that do not aim to transfer rights, such as the same person placing orders for both the purchase and sale of the same asset for the purpose of soliciting transactions.
Virtual currency glossary
connection: US SEC issues subpoena to Justin Sun and others
connection: Circle Inc. partners with Taiwan’s FamilyMart to convert points earned at convenience stores into virtual currency
Points from Circle Inc.
Circle said CfA’s claims are full of errors, omissions and misleading information.
Of the $93 million identified by the Israeli government, publicly available blockchain records show that only $160 was transferred in USDC, and none of it was obtained from Circle. It is pointed out that it is shown.
The group criticized CfA for citing, without corroboration or verification, unsubstantiated social media posts linking Circle to funding Hamas and Hezbollah.
Additionally, although the U.S. government has not currently designated Mr. Sun as a sanction target, as of February 2023, Circle has confirmed that all assets owned by Mr. Sun and its affiliated organizations, including the Tron Foundation and Huobi Global, are subject to sanctions. He also explained that his account has been suspended.
Regarding the regulatory compliance status, he also stated the following:
We are a highly regulated financial services company and devote significant resources to ensuring compliance with rules and regulations.
We are supervised as a money transmitter by the Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Financial Institutions, as a foreign money transfer institution by the Massachusetts Division of Banking, and hold virtual currency and money transfer licenses issued by the New York Department of Financial Services and 45 other U.S. jurisdictions. are doing.
He added that the company has many staff members who have worked for the U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies.
To date, no official response has been released by Rep. Brown or Rep. Warren, who received the letters from CfA and Circle.
Warren is known to be skeptical of cryptocurrencies, and claimed in October that Hamas had received large crypto donations to fund attacks on Israel. Elliptic, a blockchain data analysis company, refuted this, saying there was “no evidence of this.”
connection: “There is no evidence of large cryptocurrency donations to Hamas” = data analysis company Elliptic
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