Autor Cointelegraph By David Attlee

Korean police reportedly arrest first person involved in Terra collapse

After months of investigation without any single arrest and the main offender on the run teasing the enforcers on Twitter, South Korean police have reportedly captured the first person involved in the Terra blockchain ecosystem collapse. The news about the arrest of Yoo Mo, the head of the business team of Terraform Labs, appeared in Korean media on Oct. 6, later the district prosecutor Choi Sung-kook confirmed the information to Forkast. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office issued a bench warrant on Yoo on Oct. 5, reportedly charging him with the violation of the Capital Markets Act and fraud by manipulating the market price of the stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), now known as TerraUSD Classic (USTC). Authorities did not reveal details of the arrest such as the time.The arrest warrant on Yoo was issued back in September — the executive is believed to be a part of the inner circle of Terra’s cofounder Do Kwon. On Sept. 26 Interpol issued a Red Notice, “request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action,” on Do Kwon. Related: Terra could leave a similar regulatory legacy to that of Facebook’s LibraMeanwhile, a Terraform Labs spokesman claimed South Korea’s case against the company’s top management has become political and alleged prosecutors of expanding the definition of security in response to public pressure. The $40 billion Terra ecosystem collapse in May 2022 led to a crypto market rout that wiped out nearly a trillion dollars from the crypto market. Currently, capital market and electronic securities regulations in the country don’t include a legal definition of non-standardized securities issued through a blockchain. The country is moving to regulate the space with its financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission, preparing guidelines for security tokens by the end of 2022.

Čítaj viac

Crypto-friendly Ray Dalio steps back from Bridgewater’s $150 million fund

After 47 years in charge of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, its founder Ray Dalio has finished a leadership transition that began in February. He is no longer one of three co-chief investment officers but will remain a chief investment officer (CIO) mentor and Operating Board member.As announced on Oct. 4 on Bridgewater’s corporate website, the firm and Dalio completed the necessary and required legal, regulatory and investor requirements to finish the transition procedure. From now on, the fund will be led by co-CEOs Nir Bar Dea and Mark Bertolini, and a pair of co-CIOs — Greg Jensen and Bob Prince.One of the most powerful figures in the global financial market, Dalio demonstrated a healthy evolution of his views on crypto. Back in 2017, he called Bitcoin a bubble due to ​​the amount of speculation and the lack of transactions. Three years later he expressed his skepticism once again, saying: “There’s two purposes of money, a medium of exchange and a store hold of wealth, and Bitcoin is not effective in either of those cases now.”The turning point of superinvestor’s opinion on crypto is the Twitter thread from Nov. 12, 2020, where, while repeating his previous concerns about volatility, Dalio asked to be corrected if “he’s wrong about these things.” What followed were the explanations from the likes of Meltem Demirors, Zac Prince and Mati Greenspan. Related: Robert Kiyosaki calls Bitcoin a ‘buying opportunity’ as US dollar surgesBy December 2020 Dalio was claiming that BTC can offer protection against the “depreciating value of money” and in January 2021 he called it an “amazing accomplishment” and one of the few “alternative gold-like assets at this time of rising need for them” in Bridgewater’s note to investors.While repeatedly sharing his fears that the United States government would take zero tolerance stance toward digital money, Dalio continued to sympathize with Bitcoin, describing it as a superior instrument for saving to the government or corporate bonds. In January 2022, when the shadow of global inflation has already become a hot topic among experts, Dalio listed three primary reasons why Bitcoin, along with gold, could be an inflation hedge: The network has never been hacked; it has no better competitor, and BTC adoption rates would suggest that it could further chip away at gold’s market capitalization.

Čítaj viac

McDonald’s starts to accept Bitcoin and Tether in Swiss town

Multinational fast food chain McDonald’s started to accept Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment method in the 63,000-populated city of Lugano in Italian Switzerland, which is becoming a hotspot for crypto adoption in Western Europe. A one-minute video of ordering food on McDonald’s digital kiosk and then paying for it at the regular register with the help of a mobile app was uploaded on Twitter by Bitcoin Magazine on Monday, Oct. 3. The Tether (USDT)  logo could be spotted next to the Bitcoin symbol on the credit cash machine, which is not surprising, as in March 2022 the city of Lugano announced it would accept Bitcoin, Tether and the LVGA token as a legal tender. On March 3, 2022, the city signed a memorandum of understanding with Tether Operations Limited, launching the so-called “Plan B.” According to this plan, Tether has created two funds — the first one is a 100 million Swiss franc ($106 million) investment pool for crypto startups, and the second is a 3 million-Swiss franc (around $3 million) attempt to encourage the adoption of crypto for shops and businesses across the city. In addition to allowing Lugano residents to pay their taxes using crypto, the project will extend payments to parking tickets, public services and tuition fees for students. More than 200 shops and businesses in the area are also expected to accept crypto payments for goods and services.Related: Swiss Post’s banking arm developing in-house crypto custody platformSpeaking to Cointelegraph in June, Paolo Ardoino, the CTO of Tether and Bitfinex, claimed that Plan B “is going great”, announcing a two-week educational activity on blockchain and cryptocurrencies in the city. In September 2021 El Salvador became the first country in the world to allow using Bitcoin as a legal tender. Since that time, McDonald’s has been accepting Bitcoin at all its 19 outlets in the country.

Čítaj viac

Law Decoded, Sept. 26–Oct. 3: New episode of Do Kwon saga

Terra co-founder Do Kwon, wanted by South Korean authorities, seems to live in a digital-era James Bond movie. The businessman, whose whereabouts are currently unknown, reacted via Twitter to Interpol issuing a Red Notice on him. Kwon told his followers that he calmly writes code in his living room, “making zero effort to hide.” Active on social media while facing potential arrest and prosecution in South Korea, Kwon showed his location as Singapore on his Twitter account at the time of publication.Meanwhile, South Korean authorities have requested crypto exchange OKX and Kucoin to freeze 3,313 Bitcoin (BTC) reportedly tied to Do Kwon. Reportedly, he created a new wallet under the name of Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) on Sept. 15, just a day after a Korean court issued an arrest warrant against the fugitive crypto founder. The movement of BTC from the LFG wallet raised many eyebrows, as it contradicts Kwon‘s early claims of having used all the BTC in the LFG’s reserves to defend the peg of TerraUSD — since renamed TerraUSD Classic.However, Terraform Labs claims that South Korea’s case against its co-founder has become political, alleging that prosecutors expanded the definition of a security in response to public pressure. “We believe, as do most in industry, that Luna Classic is not, and has never been, a security, despite any changes in interpretation that Korean financial officials may have recently adopted,” Terraform’s spokesperson said told the Wall Street Journal last week. The company also believes the case to be “a failure to uphold basic rights guaranteed under Korean law.” Another blow for the SEC in the Ripple caseRipple Labs scored another victory in its continuing legal battle with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on Sept. 29, as United States District Court Judge Analisa Torres ruled to release the documents written by former SEC Corporation Finance Division Director William Hinman. The documents predominantly relate to a speech Hinman delivered at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit in June 2018 and could make evidence of Hinman stating that Ether (ETH) was not a security. Judge Torres’ decision overruled SEC objections to releasing the documents following District Court Judge Sarah Netburn’s order declaring that the emails and drafts of the speech were not protected by deliberative process privilege, as the SEC has claimed.Continue reading Russia aims to use CBDC for international settlements with ChinaRussia is reportedly planning to use the digital rouble for mutual settlements with China by next year. The digital rouble is currently being tested for bank settlements and is expected to be completed by early next year. Anatoly Aksakov, head of the finance committee in Russia’s lower house of parliament, admitted that the geo-political crisis has limited Russia’s accessibility to the international trade market. This is why they have been actively working for alternate modes of payment and trade settlements, and national digital currency seems to be the primary choice at the moment.Continue readingUAE Ministry of Economy opens up its headquarters in the MetaverseThe United Arab Emirates Ministry of Economy has announced a new headquarters located where anyone in the world can visit — the Metaverse. The headquarters will feature a multiple-story building, each serving a different purpose. Visitors will be able to take a ticket, which will prompt a “customer happiness center employee” to join the Metaverse and interact with the visitor. Visitors to the virtual headquarters will be able to sign legally binding documents, which eliminates the need for signatories to visit one of their physical locations in order to provide their signatures.Continue reading

Čítaj viac

Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly intended to join the Twitter deal in March

Not only Elon Musk thought of buying Twitter — crypto billionaire and CEO of FTX exchange Sam Bankman-Fried “was interested” in acquiring the social network back in March 2022, according to a report from Business Insider. In the piece, published on Sept. 29, journalists are referring to the private texts released amid the court battle between Musk and Twitter, which had been unwinding after the businessman had suspended the acquisition negotiations in July. According to the report, in March, a philosopher and Bankman-Fried’s close advisor Will MacAskill texted Musk and mentioned the possibility of a joint effort to buy the social network:“I’m not sure if this is what’s on your mind, but my collaborator Sam Bankman-Fried has for a while been potentially interested in purchasing it and then making it better for the world. If you want to talk with him about a possible joint effort in that direction.”In response, Musk inquired whether Bankman-Fried had “huge amounts of money,” and MacAskill claimed that SBF was worth $24 billion and ready to spend $8 billion to $15 billion on the acquisition. Later, in April, MacAskill discussed the financing with a head of global technology investment banking at Morgan Stanley, Michael Grimes. The latter told Musk that the crypto entrepreneur could provide $5 billion to seal the deal, calling him “ultra genius and doer builder.” But Musk didn’t show any significant interest and noted that he didn’t want to “have a laborious blockchain debate” with SBF. Related: Dogecoin has crashed 75% against Bitcoin since Elon Musk’s SNL appearanceThese private negotiations seemingly ended in nothing, as neither Bankman-Fried personally nor FTX appeared in a list of potential co-investors of the acquisition, which included such entities as Binance, Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity and Sequoia Capital. In the last known text message between Musk and Bankman-Fried on May 5, the former was asking, “Sorry, who is sending this message?”Justifying his decision to exit the deal, Musk accused Twitter of concealing the actual number of fake/bot accounts, which in his estimate exceeds 5% of monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) — the mark claimed by social network management. The first hearing on Twitter’s suit will be held on Oct.17. The company intends to force Musk into completing the acquisition judicially.

Čítaj viac

Získaj BONUS 8 € v Bitcoinoch

nakup bitcoin z karty

Registrácia Binance

Burza Binance

Aktuálne kurzy