Here at Circle, we want to be extremely clear about our User Agreement and some of the components therein that you might not be aware of. It’s always been available to read here (UK/EEA version, US version, and international version), but we do also understand that it’s long and there is some legalese involved, which makes the reading part less than desirable.
Our hope is that these words help bring clarity to why we’d break up with you if you violated what we agreed upon when we began our relationship.
Note: We no longer offer the ability to buy and sell Bitcoin. Customers who hold Bitcoin can continue to receive and send Bitcoin, but once they convert their balance to another currency, they will not be able to convert it back to Bitcoin. For more information, check out our help article about the changes, found here.
Be who you are.
Sometimes in life you have to be a certain age to buy something. And not getting what you want can be tough. Waiting for it is even tougher. Most parents probably had to deal with the same thing when they were young too. But if we suspect that you purchased a fake ID 🆔 , we’ll have to close your account and end the good thing we had going.
That’s not a knife.
There are a variety of reasons why you can’t purchase most weapons on the Internet in the first place. They are not our rules; they’re the federal government’s. If you’d like to purchase these items (that's a knife 🗡 ), we strongly suggest that you go to a physical store and use a different form of payment. Otherwise, we will have to close your account.
Chemicals, research substances, and things that can get you high.
Would Walter White be excited that you just purchased that item ⚗ ? If so, then your paranoia about your Circle account being closed may start sooner than you think.
Also, while we understand that buying marijuana in the US is legal in a few states, it’s not legal yet to buy it on the Internet. We’re not trying to ruin your vibe. We’re simply bound by the laws in place, and we don’t want anything getting in the way of building you a great product.
What is there to hide?
The dark web 🕶 is a place where a lot of good can happen and a lot of bad can happen. The technology that powers it, like The Onion Router (TOR), is at the forefront of the privacy and security innovation, no doubt. But when running a financial business like Circle, the dark web’s focus on privacy makes it tricky for us, because it becomes a haven for illegal activity like drug trafficking and money laundering. As a result, customers using Circle to buy or sell items on the dark web do not remain Circle customers for long, regardless of what is being bought or sold.
The flop.
First off, most gambling sites don’t work with Circle. The popular ones that we’ve noticed use a system that send funds back to the originating address. This misses the benefit of bitcoin addresses being one-time use tokens.
Secondly, we aren't allowed to process gambling winnings. So even if you win, you still lose 🎰 .
We do apologize to non-U.S. folks that don't think twice about placing a bet online, but U.S. law won't allow us to do that.
The takeaways.
It’s worth saying again, all of this information regarding illegal activity is available in our User Agreement under the Sections titled Restricted Activities and Prohibited Payments.
There are other illegal activities that are a bit more obvious that you should not be participating in as well (e.g. terrorist financing, ponzi scheming, money laundering), but the ones listed above are ones that we feel might be innocently misunderstood. And we’d hate for it to result in some sort of surprise breakup. Those are the absolute worst.
If you have any questions, thoughts, or concerns, please get in touch with us. Our team is happy to respond to any and all inquiries regarding this.