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A cryptocurrency issuer blacklisted an ethereum address that contains $100,000 in USDC. While the company did not fully disclose the reason for its action, it explained that the move was “in response to a request from law enforcement.”
Centre Consortium confirmed that it has blacklisted a cryptocurrency address in response to a request from a government agency, Bitcoin.com reported. The publication noted that this might be the first case of and address being blacklisted.
“Centre can confirm it blacklisted an address in response to a request from law enforcement,” explained a Circle personnel, who spoke on behalf of Centre. Centre is the issue of the USDC stablecoin and is a joint venture between Coinbase and Circle.
Centre called a “blacklist(address investor)” function on the address based on Etherscan transaction record. This means that the token contained in the address is effectively frozen.
An address can no longer send or receive USD Coin (USDC) through smart contracts if it is blacklisted. It is not yet clear who owns the cryptocurrency wallet address blacklisted by Centre.
Centre’s decision to give in to law enforcement demand might worry some cryptocurrency owners.
Centre’s relationship with government authorities is something that throws into doubt the “myth” of decentralization commonly associated with cryptocurrency. It shows how heavily government whims have been imposed upon investors and exchanges.
This new wave of regulation poses a contradiction in that some of the cryptocurrency’s strongest traits have always been privacy and autonomy. As demonstrated by the latest incident, it appears that cryptos are not as private or autonomous as previously thought as government agencies can “top-down demands, which include the freezing of accounts.”
However, there are clues that the blacklisted address might have some issues. For instance, someone posted a comment to the address calling its owner a thief and demanding the return of 10,000 Loopring Coin (LRC) worth around 750 euros.
“Hello unknown thief, you are in contact with this eth address 0xEeC84548aAd50A465963bB501e39160c58366692 and you stole 10,000 Loopring Coin (750 euros) from my wallet,” the commenter wrote. “I am now giving you a chance to send the 10,000 Loopring Coin back to me. You already know my [ethereum] address. If you do not do this, I will report you anywhere with your two known addresses.”
