Circle Internet Group (NYSE:CRCL) is facing a proposed class action lawsuit accusing the company of not freezing stolen funds following a major exploit of the Drift Protocol.
The complaint, filed in a U.S. district court in Massachusetts, alleges that Circle permitted hackers to transfer roughly $230 million in USDC stablecoin after a broader $280 million breach of Drift Protocol on April 1.
According to the plaintiffs, Circle had both the technical ability and contractual authority to halt the movement of the funds but did not intervene, even as the assets were moved across multiple blockchains using its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol over several hours.
The lawsuit claims negligence and aiding unlawful conversion, arguing that a timely response could have materially reduced losses for affected investors.
The incident, one of the largest crypto-related breaches of 2026, resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars being siphoned from Drift Protocol, leading to a sharp drop in its total value locked and causing knock-on effects across the broader decentralized finance ecosystem.