Circle, the issuer of the $74 billion stablecoin USDC, shared a promotional image of music producer DJ Khaled wearing Chelsea FC’s new USDC-sponsored shirt. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire then posted a message saying, 「welcome to team USDC」. The image and the message quickly drew backlash because of Khaled’s record in earlier crypto promotions.
Old ICO promotion case resurfaces after the USDC post
According to Protos, Khaled’s own X feed does not mention any partnership with USDC. On X, critics pointed back to his role in promoting crypto projects that later became the subject of U.S. enforcement action.
The case at issue involved Centra Tech, a $25 million initial coin offering. Protos said one co-founder in that case was sentenced to eight years in prison and another to one year. A third person who cooperated with authorities later appeared in a Netflix documentary about the scam.
A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission press release from November 2018 said Khaled, whose legal name is Khaled Khaled, and boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. settled charges tied to 「failing to disclose payments they received for promoting investments in ICOs.」
In that release, the SEC said Khaled had told his followers on X, 「get yours before they sell out, I got mine」. In what the regulator described as its first charges related to ICO touting, the SEC said Khaled was paid $50,000 by Centra Tech. Mayweather received $100,000, plus another $200,000 tied to two other ICOs.
Without admitting or denying the findings, Khaled and Mayweather agreed to pay settlements of about $153,000 and $615,000, respectively. Khaled also agreed not to promote any securities, digital or otherwise, for two years.
Protos links the episode to other recent Circle controversies
Protos described the Khaled promotion as the latest in a string of Circle missteps. The report pointed to Circle’s recent launch of Arc, its corporate-focused blockchain, and a separate social media moment in which a Circle team member promoted a memecoin based on Allaire’s dog, Duke.
That token, DUKE, briefly reached a market capitalization of about $2 million, according to the report. Protos said it has fallen 96% in the three weeks since launch.
Report also revisits criticism of Circle’s response to hacks
Beyond the marketing issue, Protos said Circle has repeatedly faced criticism for not using USDC’s built-in freeze function after major crypto hacks, especially in comparisons with rival Tether.
Earlier this year, the report said, $3 million in USDC remained in a SwapNet hacker address for hours before being swapped into assets that could not be frozen. Protos added that Circle faced similar criticism after the GMX and ByBit hacks last year.
On-chain investigator ZachXBT, a frequent Circle critic, has claimed he identified $420 million in what he called 「compliance failures」 across 15 incidents.
Protos also noted one case where Circle moved first. After the $350 million Bitget hack, it blacklisted an address holding nearly 100,000 USDC, acting seven hours before Tether, according to the report.
As presented in the Protos report, the immediate question raised by Circle’s post is whether the company has entered into some new USDC-related arrangement with Khaled. Based on the information cited in the story, Khaled’s own X account had not mentioned such a partnership at the time of publication.