In brief
- Circle has updated policy on prohibition on firearms purchases following complaints from firearms industry advocates.
- Senator Bill Hagerty called the update a victory against “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 barred customers from using its USDC token to buy firearms, marking a win for gun rights advocates who accused the company of discriminating against lawful commerce.
Circle confirmed to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association representing gun manufacturers and retailers, that it changed its terms of service to permit legal weapons purchases, journalist Eleanor Terrett reported in a Crypto In America newsletter on Wednesday.
“Circle has clarified our Terms to reflect that USDC may be used for the lawful 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 permissible transactions involving firearms.”
“Freedom cannot survive if your financial tools are turned against you and your Second Amendment rights,” the organization said in a Monday blog post.
The policy update followed Americans for Tax Reform’s report that highlighted Circle’s ban on USDC transactions involving “weapons of any kind, including firearms, ammunition, knives, or explosives.”
ATR’s article questioned whether private firms should decide which legal purchases consumers can make and suggested political bias, noting that Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire has donated to Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), who has sponsored gun-control legislation.
Last month, NSSF warned on X how Circle’s stance posed risks to Second Amendment rights, quoting ATR’s report.
Republican senators who recently shepherded stablecoin legislation seized on the controversy as evidence of “weaponization” against America’s financial system.
“This is a reversal of Choke Point-inspired mechanisms to end run the legislative process and surreptitiously achieve liberal partisan goals,” Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), who authored the GENIUS Act stablecoin framework that President Donald Trump signed into law in July, told Terrett.
“By aligning its terms of service with existing legal requirements, Circle defends constitutional rights and ensures financial systems can’t be weaponized against law-abiding gun owners,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) tweeted Wednesday.
While stablecoins have risen to prominence since legislation was enacted, the majority of Myriad users still believe the stablecoin market cap will not surpass $360 billion before February of next year.
Others criticize the move as an act of political acquiescence, despite crypto’s often-touted neutrality.
“A private U.S. company cannot issue a neutral stablecoin, because they are beholden to American laws, regulations, and political policies,” Kadan Stadelmann, Chief Technology Officer at Komodo, told Decrypt. “Circle’s policy reversal suggests, in fact, that stablecoins are at the whims of politicians.”
Centralized stablecoin issuers are at the “behest of domestic agendas, and put users at 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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