Stablecoin issuer Circle denied allegations of illegal financing and ties to Tron founder Justin Sun in an open letter posted on the Circle blog on November 30. A nonprofit watchdog group previously accused Circle of having ties to Sun. The post was published on November 11 and revised on November 30. The letter was addressed to U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown and signed by Dante Disparte, Circle’s chief strategy officer and head of public policy.
Disparte claimed in the letter that Circle "recently became aware" of "false" accusations made against it by a "so-called accountability campaign." "Circle does not directly or indirectly facilitate or finance Hamas (or any other illegal actor)," the letter added. Furthermore, Disparte claims it does not provide "banking" or financial services to Sun.
Disparte refuted accusations that Circle facilitated "significant financial flows to Hamas or Hezbollah," claiming they were based on unsubstantiated, unsubstantiated posts on social media. “Only $160 was transferred to [the illicit wallet] in USDC,” the letter reads, adding that “none of this was obtained from Circle.” Disparte also claims that Circle stopped providing services to Sun in February 2023, saying:
“Neither Mr. Sun nor any entities he owns or controls, including the TRON Foundation or Huobi Global, currently have accounts with Circle. To date, the U.S. government has not specifically designated Mr. Sun or his entities as Specially Designated Nationals. Nonetheless, Circle terminated all accounts held by Mr. Sun and his affiliates in February 2023."
Circle’s open letter appears to be in response to a Nov. 9 letter from the nonprofit ethics group Campaign for Accountability, in which the group claimed that Circle has extensive ties to Sun’s Tron Foundation and major Wall Street investors, and that Sun’s cross-border The chain SunSwap protocol is often used for money laundering. Since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, claims that cryptocurrencies are being used to finance terrorism have become commonplace. On October 10, the Wall Street Journal reported that “more than $130 million” in cryptocurrency had been donated to terrorist groups. The outlet later corrected its report, saying $12 million worth of cryptocurrency "may have been" sent to the organizations.
