Crypto-Related Stocks Rise as Circle and Coinbase Lead Gains

Circle rose after reports it refused to freeze USDC without a court order following a Drift-linked hack, while U.S. regulatory developments and euro stablecoin progress added support to sentiment.

USDC

43d ago

Fact Check

The strongest directly validated evidence is from Circle itself. The fetched page "USDC Risk Factors - Circle" says Circle may freeze USDC when it receives a legal order from a valid government authority, which is broadly consistent with the statement that Circle refused to freeze USDC without a court order. The searched result for "Drift Hack Fallout: Why Circle Didn't Freeze $275M Stolen USDC" further corroborates that this specific issue arose in relation to a Drift-linked hack, although that article could not be fetched and therefore remains unvalidated. Separately, the fetched "MiCA EURC White Paper | Circle" shows real euro stablecoin regulatory progress, which supports the sentiment part of the statement. However, I could not obtain a validated primary or high-quality secondary source directly confirming that crypto-related stocks rose for these exact reasons, nor could I validate the supplied flash links. So the claim is supported in substance but not fully proven in its market-causation framing.

Summary

Crypto-related stocks moved higher, led by Circle, which rose 8.94%, amid reports it refused to freeze USDC without a court order after a $285 million hack tied to Drift. Market sentiment was also supported by U.S. regulatory developments, including the SEC’s statement that wallet software is not a broker and the submission of two Reg Crypto safe harbor measures to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Progress tied to MiCA-linked euro stablecoins and payments rollout also contributed to the sector’s gains. In the broader market on April 14, the S&P 500 rose 0.32% and the Nasdaq gained 0.56%.

Terms & Concepts

USDC: A U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Circle, designed to maintain a 1:1 value with the dollar and widely used in crypto trading and payments.
MiCA: The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework, which sets regulatory rules for crypto assets and related service providers across the bloc.
wallet software: Applications that let users store, send, and manage digital assets by controlling cryptographic keys rather than acting as a traditional financial intermediary.