Overview

• Circle President Heath Tarbert told the Financial Times the firm is studying refund options to handle fraud and disputes without sacrificing settlement finality.
• Circle said its Arc blockchain, now in testing, will not natively reverse transfers, with any reversals contemplated as an added layer similar to a credit card refund.
• The company has introduced dispute tooling such as a Refund Protocol and is preparing institutional rollout of Arc with custody integrations including Fireblocks.
• Today issuers can freeze or blacklist USDC but cannot unwind finalized transfers, illustrated by Circle’s $58 million freeze in May that was later resolved via a court order.
• Developers and researchers in the crypto community object to the plan, warning of centralization risks and limited efficacy if stolen USDC is quickly swapped or bridged.