Odaily Planet Daily reports that on-chain investigator ZachXBT posted on X that Circle has unfrozen one of the 16 previously frozen wallets associated with Goated.com, with the address 0x61f...e543, which currently holds 130,966 USDC. ZachXBT stated that more affected wallets are expected to be restored in the near future.
Previously, Circle froze USDC balances in 16 hot wallets associated with multiple unrelated entities. ZachXBT stated that the freeze relates to an undisclosed U.S. civil case and criticized the case for being sealed without any justification provided for the freeze, calling it potentially the most unreasonable freeze he has seen in over five years of investigations. Taylor Monahan, a security researcher at MetaMask, also criticized the action on X, stating that this is not the first time Circle has conducted improper freezes and highlighting the lack of accountability and recourse mechanisms. Circle has not yet publicly commented on the related wallets or the legal basis for the freeze.