Token Freezes Force CFOs to Rethink Stablecoin Risk

The world moves fast, and money movement needs to keep up. That’s a large part of why stablecoins are gaining traction.

In an era of compressed settlement cycles and globalized treasury operations, the appeal of borderless digital dollars is an obvious one. Stablecoins can offer near-instant transfers, 24/7 liquidity and a bridge between traditional banking and digital asset markets.

But beneath that efficiency lies a structural distinction that CFOs can’t afford to overlook. These “digital dollars” are not neutral instruments but governed systems, and their rules can change midstream.

Recent headlines around token freezing have pulled this reality into sharper focus. The U.S.-based stablecoin platform Circle’s CEO, for example, this week (April 13) faced criticism around his firms alleged failure to freeze USDC tokens exploited in a North Korea-linked hack that led to losses of up to $280 million. Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer and a key rival of Circle, has frozen $3.5 billion of its stablecoins since 2023 and a total of $4.2 billion since the company’s launch, in cases where the tokens were linked to illicit activity.

The incidents underscore the fact that major stablecoin issuers retain the technical ability to halt transfers of specific tokens, or even eliminate them entirely through what’s termed as “burning,” often in response to regulatory directives, security incidents or compliance concerns.

For CFOs accustomed to the predictability of bank deposits or money market funds, this can introduce a new category of risk: not market risk, but governance risk embedded in code.

See also: The US Operationalized Stablecoins This Week, But Who’s Using Them?

The New Rules of Digital Cash

Stablecoins often trade on public blockchains, which creates the impression of openness and neutrality. Yet most major fiat-backed stablecoins are issued by centralized entities that maintain administrative control over their tokens. Through smart contract functions, issuers can freeze specific wallet addresses, rendering associated tokens immobile.

This capability is not theoretical. It has been used in cases ranging from suspected fraud and hacks to compliance with sanctions regimes. For issuers, freezing is a necessary safeguard, enabling them to respond to illicit activity and maintain regulatory standing. For CFOs, however, it represents a point of asymmetry: while transactions may settle instantly, they are not irrevocable in the way blockchain evangelists often suggest.

The implications can be significant. A corporate treasury that receives stablecoins from a counterparty inherits not only the asset but also its compliance history. If those tokens are later flagged—perhaps due to their prior movement through a sanctioned or compromised address—they could be frozen after the fact. In effect, the provenance of funds becomes as critical as their face value.

This introduces a due diligence requirement more akin to anti-money laundering protocols than traditional cash management. Finance teams must evaluate not just who they transact with, but how those funds have moved across the blockchain ecosystem.

Still, findings in “Waiting for Certainty: Why Most CFOs Are Holding Back on Crypto and Stablecoins,” the latest installment of the PYMNTS Intelligence exclusive series, The 2026 Certainty Project, reveal that just 13% of mid-market firms surveyed report using stablecoins. This aligns with new Federal Reserve research, which showed that most of the stablecoin assets in the marketplace today are not flowing through the real economy. Rather, they are sitting idle or circulating within crypto markets, but not being used to pay for goods and services.

Read more: Behind the Stablecoin Buzz, Old-School Infrastructure Still Runs the Show

When Digital Dollars Start to Disappear

If stablecoin freezing is a pause button, token burning is a reset. Token burning refers to the permanent removal of tokens from circulation, typically by sending them to an irrecoverable address or updating the ledger to reflect their destruction. In most cases, burning is part of routine supply management where stablecoins are minted and burned to match inflows and redemptions of underlying fiat reserves.

For CFOs, the distinction between freezing and burning is not merely technical. A frozen asset may eventually be unfrozen, subject to investigation outcomes or compliance remediation. A burned asset, by contrast, is gone. While issuers may provide restitution in certain cases—especially if the burn aligns with legitimate redemption claims—the process is neither automatic nor guaranteed.

For finance leaders, this variability complicates risk assessment. Stablecoins may share a common peg to the U.S. dollar, but their governance frameworks can differ markedly. Treating them as interchangeable instruments can be a mistake.

At the same time, for multinational corporations, the programmability of stablecoins can raise jurisdictional considerations. A stablecoin transaction that is permissible in one region may be subject to restrictions in another, depending on the regulatory posture of the issuer and the jurisdictions it serves. CFOs must therefore consider not only the technical features of a stablecoin, but also the legal environments in which it operates.

Ultimately, the ability to freeze or burn tokens is not a flaw in the digital dollar system; it is a feature. But like any feature, it carries trade-offs. Understanding those trade-offs and integrating them into a broader treasury strategy is becoming part of the CFO’s mandate in a digital-first financial world.