Circle to exclude consumer labels, but trade and mint remain

Stablecoin issuer Circle will close consumer or personal accounts on November 30, according to emails received by Circle customers on October 31. Accounts remain.

On the morning of October 31st, crypto user Evans6 posted an image on X (formerly Twitter) of an email purportedly received by Krkrk customers. The email stated that individual accounts were being closed “as part of a systematic review of the club.” The customer was told that the “wire and withdraw functionality” was no longer supported and the account would be closed on November 30.

In an email to Cointelegraph, a Club representative confirmed that the accounts are being closed, but business and institutional accounts will remain open:

“Circle is discontinuing support for existing consumer accounts and has notified individual consumers of this decision. Account closure does not apply to business or institutional Circle Mint accounts.”

Related: Circle Launches ‘Point-to-Crypto' Program With Taiwanese Convenience Store Chain

On X, some crypto users speculated about the reason for Circle's decision. Crypto sleuth Adam Cochrane suggested that Circle stock may be flowing through a “network of individual accounts” acting as “KYC mules” or money laundering intermediaries, so these accounts need to be shut down.

Actually, my personal bet is that the TUSD/USDT to USDC rolling reserve is from the users account network – that's why it failed to plug.

KYC mules aren't exactly a new concept – so I wouldn't be surprised if this was a strategic…

— Adamscochran (@adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) October 31, 2023

Crypto-trader tmnxeq offered a different hypothesis, suggesting that the accounts could be closed as part of a “price-cutting/restructuring exercise”. In the statement, Circle referred to the individual accounts as “legacy consumer accounts,” which seems to indicate that they are not being used as much as they were in the past.