Circle will cease minting of USDC on TRON effective immediately, and will discontinue support in a phased manner, as part of an effort to ensure USDC “remains trusted, transparent, and safe.”

Stablecoin issuer Circle plans to cease minting its USDC stablecoin on the TRON blockchain, and will eventually discontinue support for USDC on TRON entirely. 

“Effective immediately we will no longer mint USDC on TRON. Circle will support Circle Mint customers’ transfer(s) of USDC to other blockchains through February 2025,” said the Circle team in a Tuesday blog post.

1/ We are discontinuing USDC on the TRON blockchain in a phased transition. Effective immediately, we will no longer mint USDC on TRON. Transfers and redemptions of USDC on TRON will continue to operate normally through February 2025. Read the details: https://t.co/kw9A3ZUpWH

— Circle (@circle) February 21, 2024

Until February 2025, customers who use Circle Mint – the firm’s minting and redemption tool for institutions – will be able to transfer USDC to other blockchains, or redeem USDC on TRON for fiat currency directly via Circle.

Meanwhile, retail holders of USDC on TRON will be able to use crypto exchanges, brokerages and other on/off ramp providers to transfer their stablecoins between blockchains or redeem USDC for fiat currency. 

“Our decision to discontinue support for USDC on TRON is the result of an enterprise-wide approach that involved the business organization, compliance and other functions across our company,” said Circle.

“This action aligns with our efforts to ensure that USDC remains trusted, transparent and safe – characteristics that make it the leading regulated digital dollar on the internet.” 

The move comes a little over two months after Circle refuted claims that it facilitated terrorist financing, and denied banking TRON founder Justin Sun. 

The stablecoin issuer was responding to a 13-page letter sent by non-profit watchdog group Campaign for Accountability (CfA) to U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren, alleging Circle had a hand in funding terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). The CfA referred to Circle’s supposed ties to Sun and the fact that USDC issued on TRON was allegedly one of the cryptocurrencies found in the 93 TRON wallets tied to PIJ in an asset seizure ordered by Israel’s authorities.

At the time, Circle’s head of global policy Dante Disparte emphasized that neither Sun nor any entity under his control had accounts with Circle, and Circle had terminated all his accounts last February. 

Last month, Unchained reported that Circle had filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S. – something that also likely influenced the firm’s decision to end support for USDC on TRON in order to remain in good standing with regulators. 

In November, TrueUSD (TUSD), an Ethereum-based stablecoin linked with Tron founder Justin Sun, lost its peg to the U.S. dollar after a report that terrorists preferred TRON to the Bitcoin blockchain to transfer funds.

This is huge — Circle just announced it’s ending support for USDC on Tron.

The troubled blockchain has become the largest home for Tether, surpassing Ethereum, and has been plagued with accusations of money laundering pic.twitter.com/SxJJFvx8FP

— Leo Schwartz (@leomschwartz) February 21, 2024