Circle taps DJ Khaled as USDC ambassador despite SEC past

Circle, which issues the $74 billion USDC stablecoin, posted a promotional image of DJ Khaled wearing the new USDC-sponsored Chelsea FC kit. CEO Jeremy Allaire wrote, "welcome to team USDC."

This comes even though Khaled has a past of promoting crypto projects without disclosure, leading to SEC issues in 2018.

Khaled's own X account has no reference to a USDC partnership.

Circle really hired the guy who was charged with promoting one of the only ICO scams that was so stupid, so blatantly fraudulent, so criminal that it was written up in NYTimes and then promptly prosecuted by DOJ *and* SEC???????https://t.co/a7rAMIU5WU https://t.co/nMz60TK50R

— Tay (@tayvano_) October 6, 2026

The SEC charges are connected to Centra Tech, a $25 million ICO that resulted in one co-founder receiving an eight-year prison sentence and another a one-year sentence. A third co-founder, who cooperated, later featured in a Netflix documentary on the fraud.

According to an SEC press release from November 2018, Khaled, whose real name is Khaled Khaled, and boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. settled with the SEC for "failing to disclose payments they received for promoting investments in ICOs."

Khaled reportedly told his X followers, "get yours before they sell out, I got mine…"

The SEC's inaugural charges for "touting" ICOs state that Khaled received $50,000 from Centra Tech. Mayweather got $100,000, plus an additional $200,000 from two other ICOs.

The pair paid around $153,000 and $615,000 in settlements, "without admitting or denying the findings." Khaled agreed to a two-year ban on promoting any "securities, digital or otherwise."

'Another one…'

Teaming up with someone who promoted an ICO without disclosure is the newest in a series of missteps by Circle.

When Circle launched its corporate blockchain Arc, a team member promoted a memecoin named after Allaire's dog Duke, sparking a 'fellow kids' moment.

The DUKE token briefly reached a market cap of about $2 million but has since dropped 96% over three weeks since its launch.

the duke of @arc has entered the chat

I hear it's @jerallaire dog pic.twitter.com/5I2S5RDpRj

— Rachel Mayer (@0xrachelita) September 16, 2026

More critically, Circle often faces criticism for not using USDC's freeze feature after major hacks, especially in contrast to Tether.

Earlier this year, $3 million in USDC remained in a SwapNet hacker address for hours before being converted to non-freezable assets.

Circle faced similar criticism after the GMX and ByBit hacks last year.

Blockchain sleuth and regular Circle critic ZachXBT says he has spotted $420 million in "compliance failures" across 15 incidents.

However, Circle was quicker to act on the $350 million Bitget hack, blacklisting an address with nearly 100,000 USDC, seven hours before Tether did.