Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said Iran is "highly unlikely" to use USDC (USDC) for proposed crypto transit tolls at the Strait of Hormuz, citing the stablecoin's built-in compliance controls.
Allaire's Hormuz Remarks
Allaire made the comments at a press conference in Seoul on Apr. 13. A reporter asked whether Iran's Revolutionary Guards might accept USDC for Hormuz passage fees.
Allaire dismissed the scenario.
He pointed to research from the United Nations and forensic firms showing that sanctioned actors tend to favor other stablecoins over USDC. "It's highly unlikely that a regime under sanctions would attempt something where the likelihood of the assets being immediately frozen is extremely high," he said.
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Drift Exploit and CLARITY Act
The Seoul press conference also touched on the $285 million Drift Protocol exploit from Apr. 1. Attackers bridged over $230 million in stolen USDC from Solana (SOL) to Ethereum (ETH) over six hours without Circle freezing the funds.
Allaire said the company can only freeze wallets at the direction of law enforcement or courts.
"We do not as a company decide what is the right path," he said, warning that letting a private firm make such calls creates a "very significant moral quandary."
He acknowledged the gap and said Circle is pushing for the CLARITY Act to include "safe harbors" allowing issuers to freeze funds preemptively in extreme cases. On the same bill's proposed ban on passive stablecoin yield, Allaire called the debate "overblown," noting that about half of the $120 trillion global M2 money supply sits in physical cash or non-interest-bearing accounts.