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Terraform Labs Co-Founder Do Kwon Pleads Not Guilty In Montenegro Forged Documents Case

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Terraform Labs Co-Founder Do Kwon, arrested in Montenegro based on an international warrant and accused by local authorities of using fake travel documents, pleaded not guilty during his court appearance, according to a Bloomberg report.

Do Kwon, the founder of Terra, who had been evading authorities for some time, was recently apprehended by Montenegro officials. The government of Montenegro has accused him of forging local documents and is presently awaiting extradition. Despite the crypto community’s contemplation on the collapse of Terra, which occurred a year ago, Kwon refuted certain allegations against him.

Recent reports suggest that Do Kwon pleaded not guilty at the Basic Court in Podgorica, Montenegro. Kwon and Han Chang-Joon, the former CFO of Terra, was detained based on an international warrant and found to possess a South Korean passport and counterfeit Belgian and Costa Rican travel documents. Since the duo’s possession of forged Belgian and Costa Rican passports was discovered, they have been charged with the offense.

It is important to note that using forged documents is a criminal offense in the region. Individuals found guilty of this can face imprisonment of up to five years. Branko Andjelic, the Terra duo’s defense lawyer, proposed releasing them on bail of 400,000 euros, or $437,240 each. However, prosecutor Haris Sabotic rejected this suggestion, claiming they have adequate financial means but no intention of remaining in Montenegro.

Although Do Kwon and Han Chang-Joon assert the validity of their Costa Rican passports, only time will determine the authenticity of their claim. The subsequent court hearing for the lawsuit has been set for June 16.

Terra Co-Founder Do Kwon To Stand Trial In South Korea

Daniel Shin, the co-founder of Terra, has been charged with multiple offenses related to the network’s downfall. He and seven other individuals have been accused of fraud, embezzlement, and breach of duty. The Seoul Southern District Court of South Korea has scheduled the first trial on May 26 to address these allegations. It’s worth mentioning that South Korea is also preparing for the extradition of Do Kwon.

Related Reading: | Terra’s Do Kwon Challenges US Extradition: Report |

BTCUSDT 2023 05 11 19 10 46
Source: Tradingview.com

Terra’s Daniel Shin To Make His 1st Formal Court Appearance

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Terra’s indicted co-founder Daniel Shin is set to make a court appearance at the Seoul Southern District Court for his first trial on May 26, according to a local report.

Shin, a co-accused in the Terra project failure was recently indicted by South Korea on violations of capital-markets law among other charges.

He and nine other staff members of Terraform Labs face multiple charges, for illegal trading; two others are accused of breach of trust.

In the Bloomberg report on April 25, prosecutors froze assets worth roughly 246 billion won [$184 million] allegedly belonging to Shin and nine others.

The property freeze procedure including imposing foreclosure on flats and foreign vehicles owned by former executives and others, marked the first step towards retrieving the proceeds of crime, the report noted.

According to investigators, all the defendants were directly involved with the crypto project, having handled marketing, systems development, and management. 

However, Shin’s lawyer, Kim Ki-dong, denied all the accusations in a statement.

Shin has nothing to do with the Terra, Luna collapse as he left the [company] two years before the fallout. He voluntarily returned to South Korea immediately after the collapse and has been faithfully cooperating with the probe for over 10 months, hoping to contribute to fact-finding.

Meanwhile, a Seoul Court gave the green signal to seize $176 million in assets owned by Do Kwon, a key figure in the Terra Luna debacle and Shin’s former business partner.

Terra’s Main Accused Assets Seized

The move followed after a local news agency claimed that the Terra co-founder had allegedly hidden $100 million in a Swiss bank account.

While on the run, Do-hyung Kwon, reportedly disputed US jurisdiction. This comes amidst South Korean and American law enforcement agencies competing to extradite the wanted crypto billionaire who was recently apprehended in Montenegro.

It is not yet known whether the Supreme Court actually granted the request for a postponement or whether the Terra founder actually appealed.

According to some analysts, the disgraced CEO may be buying time to lessen the severity of his sentence in the future.

On May 12, 2022, stablecoin UST and the crypto asset LUNA of the Terra Ecosystem crashed in a matter of days with investors losing millions of savings. Prosecutors alleged that the defendants took away profit worth 463 billion won [nearly $346 million] before the collapse.

Upbit Paves The Way For SUI’s Global Adoption: New Asset Joins KRW & BTC Markets

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Upbit, South Korea’s largest crypto exchange, has made an exciting announcement regarding adding a new digital asset to its platform. Starting on May 3rd, 2023, Upbit will introduce SUI (Sui Sui) for trading in the Korean won (KRW) and Bitcoin (BTC) markets.

This move marks a significant milestone as SUI becomes the first project to support domestic and international transactions. 

However, due to the lack of existing trading data on other exchanges, determining the market price may pose some challenges. Investors are advised to exercise caution and make informed decisions when investing in SUI.

Upbit will implement certain restrictions during the initial phase of SUI trading to ensure a safe and secure trading environment. Firstly, for the first five minutes after the start of trading support, sell orders will be limited to prices below 90% of the standard price. 

Additionally, buy orders will be restricted for the same period, and market prices and reserve orders will be limited for the first hour.

Deposit & Withdrawal Services For SUI On Upbit

Deposits for SUI will only be supported from the mainnet network, with deposits through other networks, such as Binance Smart Chain (BSC), not being accepted. 

It’s worth noting that all SUI deposits made after the start of deposit support and before the reference price is registered on CoinMarketCap or before Upbit SUI transaction support will be subject to verification through the travel rule solution, regardless of the token’s price.

Upbit will announce the specific timing for supporting SUI deposit and withdrawal services once the network status has been thoroughly checked. However, users should be aware that the smooth operation and stability of the network are critical factors. 

If deposits and withdrawals are suspended on overseas exchanges, it may also impact the deposit and withdrawal services on Upbit.

In order to comply with regulatory requirements, Upbit urges its users to ensure that their accounts are included in the list of deposit and withdrawal virtual asset providers supported by the exchange. 

Deposits and withdrawals can only be made to personal wallet addresses that have completed the ownership verification process. Moreover, larger deposits of digital assets with unknown origins may require additional scrutiny to identify the source of the funds.

Nevertheless, Upbit’s decision to list SUI reflects its commitment to expanding its digital asset offerings and providing a trusted platform for cryptocurrency enthusiasts. 

Traders and investors eagerly anticipate the commencement of SUI trading on May 4th, 2023, as they seek to explore the potential opportunities offered by this innovative blockchain project.

Related Reading | Glassnode Co-founder’s Insight Into Bitcoin’s Future Trajectory: Battleground At $28K

Terraform CEO’s Crypto Billions Discovered In Swiss Bank SEC Pursues Legal Action

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Terraform Labs (TFL) CEO Kwon Do-hyung and TFL’s Signum bank accounts are worth billions of won. In February, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Kwon and TFL, alleging an unregistered securities issue and accused the CEO of moving 10,000 BTC (about 300 billion won) to a Swiss bank, Signum.

Signum, the world’s first virtual asset bank, was founded in 2017 in Zurich, Switzerland. The Financial and Securities Crime Joint Investigation Unit of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office (Head Dan Seong-han) acknowledged on April 25 that they are still following Bitcoin owned by Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), with some already converted into cash and stored in the Signum account.

Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin was indicted on Tuesday. The prosecution discovered that the $100 million sent to Signum was used for attorney’s fees. Billions of won are still in the account.

The prosecution also stated that freezing the Signum account would be contingent on the Swiss government and banks deciding which freeze request, from South Korea or the United States, should be processed first.

Shin and seven others were accused of illicit trading, and two more were charged with breach of trust. According to Bloomberg, prosecutors stated at a news conference that everyone involved is tied to Terra.

Terra Co-Founder Daniel Shin’s Assets Frozen Amidst Alleged Financial Wrongdoings

The frozen assets are part of a “restitution” request allowed in court to compensate victims, not a “forfeiture” motion just rejected to deposit the funds in the national treasury.

The accusation comes just one day after the Seoul Southern District Court declared that Terra Classic, as Luna was renamed after its implosion, is not a security under Korea’s Capital Markets Act. Nonetheless, prosecutors have asked the Supreme Court of Korea to rule on the case.

Shin’s attorneys maintained today that he left the Terra project in 2020 and has not been involved in operations since. The prosecutors’ “premise that Shin continued with the business although warnings from financial authorities are incorrect,” according to Shin’s lawyers, according to Korea Daily

Global Legal Implications

Following the arrests of Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon and chief financial officer Han Chang Joon in Montenegro last month, the legal fallout from the Terra tragedy now spans multiple countries.

Both the United States and South Korea have requested Kwon’s extradition, but he and Joon must first face charges in the country where they were arrested for using false passports.

Meanwhile, Kwon has requested that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) drop the accusations against him because Terra tokens are not securities.

Related Reading: | Binance: Terra Classic’s Existing Deposit Addresses Will Be Discontinued |

BTCUSD 2023 04 25 19 09 25
Source: Tradingview.com

Bitrue Exchange’s Hot Wallets Breached; Estimated Loss Over $22M

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Crypto exchange Bitrue came under a brief exploit that targeted one of its hot wallets on 07:18 [UTC], 14 April 2023.

During the onslaught, the unknown attackers made off with assets valued at around 23 million USD in the following currencies: ETH, QNT, GALA, SHIB, HOT, and MATIC.

According to leading blockchain expert PeckShield, Bitrue drainer sold off the abovementioned tokens [ 173K QNT, 22.55 billion SHIB, 46.4 million, and 310K MATIC] for roughly 8540 ETH.

Also, the exchange’s native token QNT fell by over 11% in just three hours.

However, according to Bitrue, the impacted hot wallet only has less than 5% of the total funds. The remaining wallets in its collection are secure and unharmed.

“We were able to address this matter quickly and prevented the further exploitation of funds. We take this matter seriously and are currently investigating the situation.” the team stated via Twitter.

Additionally, Bitrue warned users that all withdrawals would be temporarily suspended and would resume on April 18, 2023, in order to conduct additional security checks.

..We are conducting a thorough security review and will share the necessary updates in due course. We seek your understanding and patience at this time. All identified users who are affected by this incident will be compensated in full.

A few days back, the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange GDAC suffered a similar fate. On April 9, unidentified hackers attacked the platform’s hot wallet and stole about $13 million across several cryptocurrencies.

Bitrue Hack Is a Stark Reminder Of Security Risks In Hot Wallets

Following the incident, GDAC CEO Seunghwan Han said that the exchange’s wallet system and related servers were suspended and blocked.

The latest incident serves as a sharp reminder of the security dangers associated with hot wallets, which, unlike cold wallets, are connected to the internet.

As a result, if a hot wallet for an exchange is compromised, both the exchange and its users could suffer large financial losses.

In related news, Yearn Finance suffered exploitation recently due to a vulnerability in its legacy smart contract.

As reported by TronWeekly, DeFi protocols Yearn Finance was plundered to the tune of over $11 million owing to a misconfigured yUSDT, according to Peckshield.

ICON (ICX) Surges Nearly 100% In Weekly Chart, Poised For Future Growth

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The recent rise of a 98th-ranked currency, ICON (ICX), has caught the attention of many in the market. As of the weekly chart, ICX has gained almost 100%, marking a significant achievement for the token. 

Furthermore, the token will reach an 11-month high tomorrow, breaking a major resistance point at $0.47. One reason for the recent surge in ICX’s price is its growing popularity in South Korea. Local traders have placed their bets on the token, leading to a 40% increase in the past 24 hours. 

ICX 7D graph coinmarketcap 1
Source: CoinMarketcap

Hundreds of millions of dollars in trading volumes have been recorded on local South Korean crypto exchanges, with the ICX-Korean won token pair seeing over $420 million in trading volume on Upbit, a prominent South Korean exchange.

ICON is a layer-one blockchain that builds a scalable, secure multichain bridging solution that connects partner blockchains via BTP. It enables cross-chain token swaps and messaging features, allowing ICON to connect various blockchains, including Binance Smart Chain, Near, Harmony, and more.

Despite a tumultuous 2022, ICX has had a good start to 2023, rising from $0.1408 in December 2022 to $0.2047 in the first three weeks of the new year. This latest surge pushed the token’s price up more than 34% on April 4, recording over 185% YTD gains.

image 23
Source: Tradingview

Currently, ICX is trading at $0.4102 with an almost 8% gain in the last 24 hours and a 7% gain in market cap in the same period. With its growing popularity and innovative use case, it’s safe to say that ICX is a cryptocurrency to watch out for in the coming days.

ICON Activates BTP Blocks On Berlin Testnet

According to the latest development update for March, the BTP team has successfully activated BTP blocks on the Berlin testnet. 

Additionally, BTP contracts have been deployed on the ICON Berlin testnet, BSC testnet, and ETH Sepolia, enabling trustless outbound messaging from the ICON blockchain. However, inbound messages are still making use of trusted relay verification.

For April, the team plans to continue testing, identifying improvements, fixing bugs, and improving the relay and BMV components. After one-way bridging, they will work towards full trustless bridging with BTP on the testnet. 

The team also invites other teams to explore how they can adopt BTP’s xCall to enable new functionality on their applications.

In the past month, the team has made significant progress, such as completing unit testing for ETH 2.0 BMV implementation, developing a custom API for ETH 2.0 relay implementation, and testing integration on local ICON and ETH 2.0 instances.

For the next month, the team plans to start BTP block testing on the Berlin testnet, deploy BSC integration to ICON (Berlin) and BSC testnet, and continue ongoing BSC and ETH relay testing and debugging. 

Additionally, the ICON blockchain will focus on improving code coverage, optimizing rewards through diversified pricing tiers, and evaluating validator productivity.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Transfer Volume Surges By 153% In 24 Hours: Sign Of Renewed Interest?

Terra’s Do Kwon Challenges US Extradition: Report

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While on the run, Do-hyung Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs, reportedly disputed US jurisdiction. This comes amidst South Korean and American law enforcement agencies competing to find recruits for the wanted crypto billionaire who was recently apprehended in Montenegro.

According to a report by YNA, Kwon, a key figure in the Terra Luna debacle asked the U.S. Supreme Court to extend the deadline for submitting an appeal request.

The move, as per the article, was done with the intention of disobeying the summons order issued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] on August 18 to October 6 last year.

In the documents submitted to the Supreme Court, Kwon’s lawyer argued, “Although Terraform is a Singapore corporation and Kwon is also a resident of Singapore, the SEC [a US institution]’s personal jurisdiction was recognized by the 2nd Court of Appeal.”

Kwon is the CEO of Terraform, an open-source software development company with limited contact with the United States. Most of this company’s business is essentially global, and it is not specifically aimed at the United States.

“Looking at the digital market as well as in a general context, the judgment of this court’s personal jurisdiction is broad and important,” Kwon’s side emphasized.

Terra Founder Attempts To Buy Out More Time

Also, it asked for a delay, stating that the attorneys’ team is under a great deal of pressure to apply for permission to appeal by the deadline of September 6.

It is not yet known whether the Supreme Court actually granted the request for a postponement or whether the Terra founder actually appealed.

According to some analysts, the disgraced CEO may be buying time to lessen the severity of his sentence in the future.

While the maximum term in South Korea is just about 40 years, in the United States, it can reach over 100 years if the punishments for many offenses are put together.

On May 12, 2022, stablecoin UST and the crypto asset LUNA of the Terra Ecosystem crashed in a matter of days, widely recognized as the most turbulent event in the history of the crypto market.

Traders’ confidence was severely damaged by the surplus supply of LUNA and the quick depegging of UST. Both assets’ prices fell sharply as a result, and they were removed from major exchanges.

Weekly Market Watch: Bitcoin & Ethereum’s Bullish Ride, Altcoin Follows Their Footsteps

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Last week, the cryptocurrency market witnessed a bullish surge, with Bitcoin and Ethereum leading the charge, hitting their highest marks in nine months. This uptrend had a favorable impact on the overall market outlook. 

Nevertheless, certain altcoins displayed considerable gains in the weekly chart, standing out in the crypto market for their exceptional performances amidst the bullish trend of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Some low-cap coins on the list of weekly gainers have shown substantial growth, with XRP leading the pack, followed by Flare (FLR), and third, in line is NEXO. 

XRP has experienced a significant surge of 20% over the past week, making it the leading performer among the top 100 tokens by market capitalization. This rise in value can be attributed mainly to its recent achievement of the highest trading volume on South Korea’s two major exchanges.

XRP 7D graph coinmarketcap
Source: CoinMarketcap

Its trading volume on Upbit and Bithumb in South Korea reached nearly $348 million in the last 24 hours, surpassing even Binance’s volume by almost 100 million tokens.

Currently, XRP is trading at $0.4539, demonstrating a 1.14% increase in the past 24 hours and a 1.15% surge in its marketcap. The token hit its peak of $0.4914 after beginning the week at $0.3884, displaying a strong and remarkable performance. 

Meanwhile, Flare (FLR) is also gaining attention from the community as a second top weekly performer. Over the past week, FLR has experienced a surge of approximately 15%. As of now, FLR is trading at $0.03526; in the last 24 hours, the token has experienced a 1.40% decrease.

FLR 7D graph coinmarketcap
Source: CoinMarketcap

The FLR price saw a surge following the announcement of FlareDrop.01, which went live on March 17th. It is the first of 36 monthly FlareDrops, and wallets holding Wrapped FLR can claim up to 676 million FLR.

Across all drops, a total of 24.2 billion FLR will be claimable. Recently, the Wrap-delegate-claim-repeat process was announced. As the next FlareDrop isn’t until April 16th, now is a good time for Flare holders to familiarize themselves with the process.

NEXO, which is currently trading at $0.7337 with a 14% rise in the weekly chart, is also gaining attention. This surge can be attributed to the latest announcement that Nexo Pro and TheTieIO have partnered to provide highly customizable institutional-grade tools to advanced traders. 

Moreover, some popular coins are experiencing gains in weekly charts, including SingularityNET(AGIX) at 49%, Fantom (FTM) at 38%, and WBTC, with an increase of 30%, according to the data from CoinMarketcap. 

Bitcoin (BTC) & Ethereum (ETH) Weekly Review

Bitcoin, the world’s largest crypto, has reached a key resistance level of $28,803.34 this past week. The bullish trend started on March 17th as Bitcoin bulls rallied with the goal of surpassing the $28,000 mark. Since then, Bitcoin has traded between $27,000 and $28,700, indicating a slight stall at the $28,000 level.

BTC 7D graph coinmarketcap 6
Source: CoinMarketcap

This double-digit rally has astounded investors, but the liquidity in crypto markets has remained dry. According to Conor Ryder from Kaiko, a metric used to assess Bitcoin’s liquidity – the bids and asks placed within a 2% range on both sides of market maker order books – has dropped to its lowest point in 10 months. 

The decrease in liquidity is a result of companies that engage in buying and selling cryptocurrencies being unable to access dollar-payment systems.

Ethereum, the second most valuable cryptocurrency, has also suffered a similar fate, experiencing a sharp increase in value in the past week and marking its key resistance at $1,853.89.

ETH 7D graph coinmarketcap 7
Source: CoinMarketcap

According to the data from CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin is currently trading at $27,754.80, with a 0.33% growth over the past seven days but a 0.74% increase in the past 24 hours. While ETH is trading at $1,752.47, experiencing a significant increase in the 24-hour trading volume of about 15%.

Related Reading | Gokhshtein’s Ethereum Tweet Amidst zkSync’s Launch Of World’s First zkEVM Mainnet?

Polygon Transaction Volume Taps Over $40M Amid Price Drop

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Polygon has recorded a spike in transaction volume, hitting over $40 million in its network. Data analytics platform Santiment noted that this is MATIC’s biggest 8-figure move in 2023.

However, in the price movement, MATIC is still down by over 10% in the past seven days. The 9-ranked asset is currently trading at $1.1 with a slight dip in the last 24 hours.

Notwithstanding this, the rise in transaction volume is supported by the positive attitudes of investors, who are solidly on the purchase side as development activity reaches new highs.

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Polygon Transaction Volume Taps Over $40M Amid Price Drop 10

The Layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution has attracted a lot of high-profile brands to its ecosystem, especially in the Web3 gaming and NFT domain.

As reported by TronWeekly, Korea’s largest game developer, Nexon has announced that its famed Web3 game MapleStory Universe would be deployed in Polygon and to support the new game, it would be opening a private Supernet on Polygon.

The launch would expose the blockchain to the game’s over 180 million registered users

Ryan Wyatt, President of the Polygon labs acknowledged that South Korea is “a critical market,” for Web3 gaming.

Wyatt also tweeted, that with this, Nexon joined other AAA developers like Square Enix in choosing to build on Polygon.

Earlier, Square Enix, the Tokyo-based video game behemoth known for popular series like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, said that it will be collaborating with the team Polygon to introduce a gamified art-collecting experience.

Another noteworthy brand to mention is Starbucks, which just partnered with Polygon for a Web3 push, along with Meta, whose NFT is already trending on Instagram.

Polygon’s Recent Alliances With Top Brands

Other popular brands building on Polygon are Reddit, whose NFT avatars have amassed more than 3 million users, and Nike’s future digital apparel platform.

Furthermore, Immutable, a Web3 game entity, recently tapped the layer-2 blockchain as well. The two entities declared their new strategic partnership at the Game Developer conference this week.

Both sides anticipate that it would boost innovation and adoption in the emerging crypto-gaming industry.

Most recently, a well-known market leader in customer relationship management, software entity Salesforce has forged alliances with the layer 2 blockchain platform for an NFT-based loyalty program. 

Terraform Labs Founder Do Kwon Faces Fraud Charges After Montenegro Arrest

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The founder of Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, has been arrested by Montenegrin police at an airport with falsified documents. This news comes after Kwon’s location had been a mystery for months, and he had been on an Interpol wanted list in connection with last year’s TerraUSD collapse. Kwon is also facing an investigation in South Korea and has already faced civil charges filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Allegations of Market Manipulation & Fraud On Terraform Labs Founder 

Federal prosecutors in New York have charged Kwon with fraud, conspiracy to defraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to engage in market manipulation. 

The complaint alleges that Kwon made a number of “untrue and misleading statements of material fact” over several years, citing T.V. appearances and tweets from accounts tied to Terraform Labs.

According to the filing, Kwon sought the assistance of a U.S. trading and investment firm to manipulate the market price of UST, which the firm reportedly provided. This allegation was also made by the SEC in its complaint.

According to Filip Adzic, the interior minister of Montenegro, Kwon was arrested with falsified documents at an airport earlier on Thursday. The Korean National Police Agency later confirmed his identity.

Kwon’s arrest represents a significant milestone in the ongoing investigation, as he has been the subject of multiple inquiries and was even the subject of an Interpol red notice. 

The collapse of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin and its $40 billion ecosystem last year sent shockwaves through the crypto markets, and Kwon was implicated in the incident.

The news of Kwon’s arrest was announced on Twitter by Filip Adzic, the minister of interior of Montenegro. Adzic’s account is followed by the official account of the prime minister of Montenegro, Dritan Abazovic, who retweeted the announcement. However, the account Adzic is unverified, and official confirmation of Kwon’s identity is still awaited.

Kwon’s extradition is being demanded by South Korea, the USA, and Singapore, and the Department of Justice has confirmed its intention to seek his extradition to the U.S.

This arrest represents a significant step forward in the investigation into the collapse of terraUSD and its associated ecosystem. The impact of this development on the broader cryptocurrency market is yet to be determined, but it is expected to attract close scrutiny from investors and regulators.

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