Terra
Terra lending protocol Mars to launch mainnet
The Mars Hub will launch an independent Cosmos application chain and issue MARS to users who hold the token during the two snapshots on Terra Classic. News Own this piece of history Collect this article as an NFT The original Terra lending protocol, Mars Hub, has announced it will launch its independent Cosmos application chain on Jan. 31, as well as issue MARS tokens to users who hold it during two snapshots on Terra Classic. According to a Jan. 20 statement, the Mars Hub mainnet will go live with 16 genesis validators, including Block Pane, Chill Validation, Chorus One, Cosmology, CryptoCrew Validators, ECO Stake and others. An additional 34 slots for permissionless validators will be available post-launch. On January 31, Mars Hub Mainnet will go live. – $MARS Airdrop....
Albright Capital drops lawsuit against Terraform Labs and Do Kwon
Albright Capital has dropped its lawsuit against Terraform Labs and its founder Do Kwon, according to a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal filed in U.S. District Court on January 9. Before its dismissal, the lawsuit had alleged that the company had violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”) by operating the stablecoin, UST, as a “Ponzi scheme.” Three Arrows Capital (3AC) co-founder Su Zhu posted the dismissal to Twitter, saying: Curious how long it will take cryptonative media to report on this sudden voluntary dismissal of class action against Luna foundation and Luna investors pic.twitter.com/8SyMhB4u4g — Zhu Su (@zhusu) January 10, 2023 Zhu had previously claimed that the bankruptcy of 3AC was partially caused by UST’s collapse. The lawsuit was dismissed “w...
Top five crypto winners (and losers) of 2022
Cointelegraph looks back on the best and worst-performing cryptocurrencies of 2022 among the top 100 assets by market capitalization. We used the highest and the lowest year-to-date (YTD) returns through the close of Dec. 25, 2022. Overall, Cryptoindex.com 100 (CIX100), an index that tracks the 100 best-performing cryptocurrencies, fell nearly 68% YTD, suggesting most top coins underperformed in 2022. CIX100 weekly price chart. Source: TradingView Stablecoins are naturally omitted from the list below. Similarly, coins tracking the value of gold and similar mainstream assets have also been ignored. Instead, the coins mentioned below include decentralized currencies, smart contract tokens, exchange tokens and others. Top five crypto of 2022 1. GMX (GMX) YTD return: 111% Sector: Decentralized...
Santas and Grinches: The heroes and villains of 2022
From an outside perspective, 2022 has been a rollercoaster ride for crypto. The market reached a total valuation of $3 trillion during the bull market of 2021, only to scale back to its current level of around $810 billion. While this poor performance can be partly attributed to the pervading macroeconomic environment — compounded by rising inflation rates and the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict, among other factors — one cannot deny the role that the recent slew of insolvencies has had on the sector. That said, below is a list of arguably the most notable heroes and villains who have undeniably impacted this rapidly evolving industry over the past year. The heroes Changpeng Zhao At a time when some of the biggest players in crypto crumbled, Changpeng Zhao, also known as “CZ,” ensure...
Rating agencies, not regulators, can rebuild trust in crypto after FTX
The last year has been an eventful one for the crypto space. The collapse of the Terra ecosystem and its TerraUSD (UST) algorithmic stablecoin saw $50 billion wiped off the market in a flash. And more recently, FTX, an exchange many thought was “too big to fail,” came crashing down. There’s been no shortage of drama in the space, which has seen name-stay businesses and projects disappear along with investors’ funds. Given the events of this year, it’s inevitable that serious government attention is coming for the space, in every major jurisdiction — and on the time scale of a few months to at most a few years, not decades. This was fairly clear to most industry observers even before the recent FTX debacle, and now it has become glaringly obvious. There is much debate in the space abo...
Algorithmic stabilization is the key to effective crypto-finance
After the collapse of Terraform Labs’ cryptocurrency, Terra (LUNA), and its stablecoin, Terra (UST), the notion of “algorithmic stabilization” has fallen to a low point in popularity, both in the cryptocurrency world and among mainstream observers. This emotional response, however, is strongly at odds with reality. In fact, algorithmic stabilization of digital assets is a highly valuable and important class of mechanism whose appropriate deployment will be critical if the crypto sphere is to meet its long-term goal of improving the mainstream financial system. Blockchains, and other similar data structures for secure decentralized computing networks, are not only about money. Due to the historical roots of blockchain tech in Bitcoin (BTC), however, the theme of blockchain-based digita...
Former top SEC crypto regulator hired by Caroline Ellison
A former top crypto regulator with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will represent Caroline Ellison, the ex-Alameda Research CEO, in an ongoing federal probe, according to a Dec. 10 report from Bloomberg. Ellison will be represented by Stephanie Avakian and a team of attorneys from WilmerHale. Avakain is currently chair of the Securities and Financial Services department at the law firm. At the SEC, she was a director at the Enforcement Division, where she expanded cryptocurrency oversight, bringing cases against Robinhood and Ripple Lab. According to the law firm’s website, “Ms. Avakian oversaw the Division’s approximately 1,400 professionals and staff. During her four years leading the Division, the SEC brought more than 3,000 enforcement actio...
South Korean judge dismisses arrest warrants for Terra co-founder Do Kwon’s former associates
A judge with the Seoul Southern District Court has reportedly set aside arrest warrants for Terra co-founder Shin Hyun-seong along with those of 3 Terra investors and 4 developers. According to an Dec. 3 report from South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, Judge Hong Jin-Pyo said there was little risk of Shin or the Terra associates destroying evidence related to the case against the crypto firm, and dismissed warrants that the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office issued on Nov. 29. The report added that Terra co-founder Do Kwon, also facing legal action in South Korea for his role in the firm’s collapse, was unlikely to return to the country. “The Seoul Southern District Court’s ruling on Dec. 3rd to reject South Korean prosecutors’ detention warrant requests for former Terraform Labs empl...
South Korea issues arrest warrant for Do Kwon’s former colleagues
Amid the ongoing manhunt for Terraform Labs co-founder and CEO Do Kwon, South Korean authorities have spread out their investigations to target other Terra executives. Prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for co-founder Daniel Shin and seven other engineers and investors of the firm following suspicion of gaining illegal profits before the massive collapse of the Terra ecosystem. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office in South Korea suspected that Shin possessed Terra (LUNA) tokens, which were pre-issued without the public knowledge of investors. In doing so, Shin allegedly bagged profits worth 140 billion won (roughly $105 million) by selling the pre-issued tokens during the bull market. Arrest warrants were also sought for three Terraform Labs investors and four engineers re...
South Korea seizes $104M from Terra co-founder suspecting unfair profits
While crypto exchange FTX stole the limelight from other fallen ecosystems, South Korean authorities continue their efforts to bring closure to the victims of the year’s first crypto crash — Terraform Labs. Nearly six months after the Terra (LUNA) blockchain was officially halted, South Korean authorities froze approximately $104.4 million (140 billion won) from co-founder Shin Hyun-seong based on suspicion of unfair profits. The decision to freeze Shin’s asset worth over $104 million was approved by the Seoul Southern District Court, which was based on a request from the prosecutors. The claim related to Shin’s involvement in selling pre-issued Terra (LUNA) tokens to unwary investors. Based on suspicion of profiting from unwarranted LUNA sales, the district court froze the allegedly stole...
3 reasons why the FTX fiasco is bullish for Bitcoin
The “Bitcoin-is-dead” gang is back and at it again. The fall of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange has resurrected these infamous critics that are once again blaming a robbery on the money that was stolen, and not the robber. “We need regulation! Why did the government allow this to happen?” they scream. For instance, Chetan Bhagat, a renowned author from India, wrote a detailed “crypto” obituary, comparing the cryptocurrency sector to communism that promised decentralization but ended up with authoritarianism. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his column conveniently used a melting Bitcoin (BTC) logo as its featured image. Hi all,“Crypto is now dead: FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, collapsed last week, proving a lot of cool guys horribly wrong,” my colum...
Stablecoins have a new name in Great Britain: Law Decoded, Oct. 24–31
The first full week under the leadership of the newly-elected Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saw a major landmark for crypto regulation in the United Kingdom. The Financial Services and Markets Bill, made public on Oct. 25, aims to enhance the U.K.’s position as a “global leader in financial services” — but what is more important is that it contains some new definitions for crypto products. The bill moves stablecoins from the category of crypto assets to digital settlement assets (DSA) — a new category marked by its potential “to develop into a widespread means of payment.” It’s yet to be seen what regulations the DSA will be subject to and if this change of status will guarantee them a green light for adoption. But, even that scope of change brings optimism. It seems we may witness unpr...
