Circle, the issuer of the $74 billion stablecoin USDC, has shared a promotional photo of music producer DJ Khaled wearing a USDC-sponsored Chelsea FC shirt, with CEO Jeremy Allaire posting "welcome to team USDC" in response.
The partnership draws attention to Khaled's regulatory history. In November 2018, Khaled, whose real name is Khaled Khaled, settled with the SEC after failing to disclose payments he received for promoting investments in initial coin offerings (ICOs). According to the SEC, Khaled was paid $50,000 from Centra Tech, a $25 million ICO that resulted in prison sentences for two co-founders—one receiving eight years and another one year.
Khaled's promotional activities reportedly involved telling his social media followers to "get yours before they sell out, I got mine." Without admitting or denying the SEC's findings, he paid a settlement of approximately $153,000 and agreed not to promote any "securities, digital or otherwise," for two years. Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. was also charged in the same action and paid a larger settlement of $615,000.
Khaled's own social media feed does not mention any partnership with USDC or Circle.
The partnership is the latest in a series of missteps for Circle. The company faced criticism following the launch of a memecoin called DUKE token based on CEO Allaire's dog, which peaked at a market cap of approximately $2 million before declining 96% within three weeks of launch.
Circle has also faced ongoing scrutiny over its use of USDC's freeze function. The company has been criticized for not freezing stolen USDC held in hacker addresses, particularly in response to major crypto hacks. In one instance, $3 million of USDC sat in a SwapNet hacker address for hours before being swapped to unfreezable assets. Similar criticism followed hacks affecting GMX and ByBit. However, Circle did freeze approximately 100,000 USDC from the $350 million Bitget hack, doing so seven hours ahead of rival Tether.
