Circle Freezes $58 Million Worth of USDC in Solana Wallets Tied to Libra Scandal

The Libra meme coin scandal, which rocked the cryptocurrency market and global politics earlier this year because of its association with Argentine President Javier Milei, has taken another turn.

USDC accounts belonging to two wallets tied to the Libra meme coin team and token deployer were frozen on Tuesday, locking up nearly $58 million worth of stablecoins on Solana that can no longer be sold or transferred. 

The accounts, tagged as frozen on Solana block explorer Solscan, maintain $44.59 million and $13.06 million in USDC, a stablecoin issued by Circle that is pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. 

Because the USDC stablecoin’s minting and issuance is controlled by Circle, the firm is able to freeze or “blacklist” tokens in accordance with its blacklisting policy. Major stablecoin issuers like Circle and Tether have been known to blacklist addresses when connected to major exploits, like the $1.4 billion hack of Bybit back in February.

Circle did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment. At the moment, it’s unclear who, exactly, requested the freeze, with multiple parties taking to X to claim credit.

Crypto-focused law firm Burwick Law said that the freeze is due to a temporary restraining order issued at its request. Meanwhile, Martin Romeo, a plaintiff in the Argentinian case around the Libra token, famously promoted by President Javier Milei, said the freeze resulted from a request from Argentina’s justice department. 

“Yesterday, a federal court in SDNY entered a temporary restraining order at our request, Burwick Law, supported by Tim Treanor, freezing approximately 57.65 million USDC held at Circle, which you can now see confirmed on Solscan,” Max Burwick said in a statement shared with Decrypt. “We’ll return to court on June 9, 2025 for a preliminary injunction hearing to keep those assets frozen through the rest of this litigation.”

Burwick previously filed a class-action suit against Kelsier Ventures and Meteora, including some named executives from the parties, for their respective roles in the Libra token scandal.

The Solana-based Libra token, which President Milei promoted at launch on X in February, quickly shot up to a multi-billion-dollar market cap before plummeting nearly 90% shortly thereafter, leading to accusations of a pump-and-dump scheme as wallets connected to the token cashed out profits.

Later, President Milei was charged with fraud, and the government set up a task force to investigate the matter. That task force was scrapped last week.  

On Tuesday, Circle filed for its initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange, targeting a $6.7 billion valuation.

Edited by Andrew Hayward