In short
- Circle has updated its firearm purchase ban policy in response to complaints from firearms industry advocates.
- Senator Bill Hagerty called the update a victory over the “weaponization” of the financial system and chokepoint-style discrimination.
- An industry expert warned that the incident exposes the vulnerability of centralized stablecoin issuers to political pressure and domestic agendas.
Major stablecoin issuer Circle has updated a policy that previously banned customers from using its USDC token to purchase firearms, marking a victory for gun rights advocates who accused the company of discriminating against legal commerce.
Circle confirmed to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association representing gun manufacturers and retailers, that it has changed its terms of service to allow legal gun purchases, journalist Eleanor Terrett reported in a Crypto America newsletter on Wednesday.
“Circle has clarified our terms to reflect that USDC can be used for the legal purchase and sale of firearms, as protected under the Second Amendment,” a Circle spokesperson told NSSF. “We have not and will not deny the use of USDC for legally authorized firearms transactions.”
“Freedom cannot survive if your financial tools are turned against you and your Second Amendment rights,” the organization said Monday blog post.
The policy update followed Americans in favor of tax reform report which highlighted Circle’s ban on USDC transactions involve “weapons of any kind, including firearms, ammunition, knives or explosives.”
ATR’s article questioned whether private companies should decide what legal purchases consumers can make and suggested political bias, noting that Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire donated to Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), who sponsored gun control legislation.
Last month NSSF warned on X how Circle’s position posed risks to Second Amendment rights, citing ATR’s report.
Republican senators hating recently stable currency legislation seized on the controversy as evidence of ‘weaponization’ against the US financial system.
“This is a reversal of Choke Point-inspired mechanisms to end the legislative process and covertly achieve liberal party goals,” Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), author of the GENIUS Act stablecoin framework that President Donald Trump signed into law in July, Terrett said.
“By aligning its terms of service with existing legal requirements, Circle is defending constitutional rights and ensuring that financial systems cannot be weaponized against law-abiding gun owners,” Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) tweeted Wednesday.
Although stablecoins have gained prominence since the legislation was passed, the majority of them Countless users still believe that the market cap of stablecoins will not exceed $360 billion before February next year.
Others criticize the move as an act of political acquiescence, despite crypto’s often touted neutrality.
“A private US company cannot issue a neutral stablecoin because they are bound by US laws, regulations and political policies,” said Kadan Stadelmann, Chief Technology Officer at Komodo. Declutter. “Circle’s reversal of policy effectively suggests that stablecoins are at the mercy of politicians.”
Centralized stablecoin issuers are “at the behest of domestic agendas and expose users to the risk of surveillance and censorship as experienced by firearms dealers,” he added.
Disclaimer: Myriad is a product of Decrypt’s parent company, Dastan.
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