Circle Freezes $1.1B in USDC Amid Binance Exploit Probe

Circle said it froze approximately $1.1 billion in USDC connected to the reported Binance exploit, according to NewsBTC. The stablecoin issuer is working with law enforcement as the investigation proceeds, although the summary provided does not specify which addresses were frozen or how the affected funds were identified. The action represents a substantial portion of the USDC market. DeFiLlama lists verified circulating supply at $70.58 billion, meaning the reported freeze equals about 1.6% of that total. Live market data places USDC’s market capitalization at $70.37 billion.

NewsBTC is the only outlet supplying coverage of the development, so the $1.1 billion figure and its connection to the reported exploit remain attributable to Circle’s statement as reported by that publication. No additional outlet coverage was provided to independently corroborate the freeze or clarify its legal basis.

USDC traded at $0.999719 at the time of the market snapshot, changing by 0.01% over 24 hours and declining 0.01% over seven days. Its near-parity price and limited recent movement occurred despite the reported restriction on roughly $1.1 billion of tokens.

The broader crypto market capitalization stood at $2.56 billion while sentiment remained subdued, with the Fear & Greed index at 28 and Bitcoin down 1.46% over 24 hours. The freeze may matter for users and market participants because it demonstrates the mechanism available to a major stablecoin issuer during an exchange-linked investigation; what to watch next is whether Circle or law enforcement provides further information about the frozen assets and investigation.