After the $285 million Drift hack, a dispute has emerged over whether Circle should have acted more aggressively to block fund movements, CoinDesk reported on Thursday.

According to blockchain security firm PeckShield, the attacker stole about $71 million in USDC in the exploit. The attacker then converted most of the stolen assets into USDC and used Circle's cross-chain transfer protocol (CCTP) to move $232 million worth of USDC from Solana to Ethereum. The cross-chain movement made asset recovery more difficult.

Prominent blockchain investigator ZachXBT said on social media platform X (Twitter), "If a project with nine-digit TVL (total value locked) does not receive support during a major incident, why should anyone build a business on Circle?"

Circle has the authority under its own terms to blacklist addresses linked to suspicious activity and freeze USDC.

Circle's position is that freezing assets unilaterally without a legal basis could expose it to legal problems.

A Circle spokesperson said, "Circle is a regulated company that complies with sanctions, law enforcement orders and court orders." The spokesperson added, "We freeze assets when legally required, and this is in line with the rule of law and strong principles on user rights and privacy protection."