Error: reverted with reason string 'Blacklistable: account is blacklisted'

Question

In my Hardhat test I'm trying to impersonate a USDC account so I can transfer USDC to a test address. The problem is no matter what address I try to impersonate, I always get the following error:

Error: VM Exception while processing transaction: reverted with reason string 'Blacklistable: account is blacklisted'

Here's the relevant code:

it("USDC Test", async function () {
    const provider = ethers.provider;
    const USDC = new ethers.Contract(addresses.tokens.usdc, abis.ERC20, provider);

    // Impersonate USDC whale
    await network.provider.request({
        method: "hardhat_impersonateAccount",
        params: [addresses.whales.usdc],
    });
    const usdcWhale = await ethers.provider.getSigner(addresses.whales.usdc);

    // Approve and transfer USDC to test address
    await USDC.connect(usdcWhale).approve(addresses.tokens.usdc, 10000);
    await USDC.connect(usdcWhale).transfer(addresses.test.address1, 10000)
});

Any ideas on how to fix this error? I'm certain the addresses I'm using aren't actually blacklisted considering they recently transferred USDC on etherscan.

Answer 1

I realized my mistake. This line was causing the error:

await USDC.connect(usdcWhale).approve(addresses.tokens.usdc, 10000);

I originally thought I needed to approve the USDC contract itself to spend my tokens, however it's not needed if I'm just calling the transfer() function.

Removing this line fixed the error.