Do Kwon faces legal trouble in South Korea, China remains Bitcoin mining powerhouse, and Ethereum 2.0 eyes ‘huge testing milestone’: Hodler’s Digest, May 15-21

2 years ago

Coming each Saturday, Hodler’s Digest volition assistance you way each azygous important quality communicative that happened this week. The champion (and worst) quotes, adoption and regularisation highlights, starring coins, predictions and overmuch much — a week connected Cointelegraph successful 1 link.

Top Stories This Week

Court documents uncover Do Kwon dissolved Terraform Labs Korea days earlier LUNA crash

Terraform Labs co-founder dissolved 2 of the entity’s locations successful South Korea, arsenic good arsenic Terraform Labs Korea, conscionable anterior to the LUNA and UST collapse, according to ineligible documents. Although the determination to dissolve the offices was made during an April 30 shareholder meeting, the timing raised eyebrows wrong the cryptocurrency community. 

As 1 mightiness expect, the aftermath of Terra’s implosion continued to reverberate crossed the marketplace this week. South Korea’s government is looking into the concern and Do Kwon himself could beryllium summoned to a parliamentary hearing.

Huge investigating milestone for Ethereum: Ropsten testnet Merge acceptable for June 8

In the archetypal fractional of June, Ethereum’s Ropsten testnet merge is scheduled to commence. Put simply, the lawsuit volition simulate the Ethereum proof-of-work (PoW) mainnet and Ethereum proof-of-stake (PoS) Beacon Chain merge.

“Ropsten testnet is getting merged connected June 8!” said Prysmatic Labs Ethereum halfway developer Preston Van Loon. “Merging Ropsten is simply a immense investigating milestone towards Ethereum’s mainnet merge aboriginal this year.”

Further reporting indicates an August people for the existent merge.

China returns arsenic 2nd apical Bitcoin mining hub contempt the crypto ban

Although China banned crypto successful 2021, the state inactive accounts for astir 21% of Bitcoin’s mining powerfulness arsenic of January 2022, according to information from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI). 

Back successful 2019, China held implicit 75% of the world’s Bitcoin hash rate. Although 21% is simply a measurement down from its erstwhile glory, the fig puts China successful 2nd spot successful presumption of BTC’s planetary hash rate, with the United States successful first. The CBECI besides included information connected different countries, revealing that the states of Kentucky, Georgia and Texas presently pb BTC hash complaint accumulation successful the U.S.

Crypto giants co-launch Chainabuse level to h2o down rising scams

The crypto assemblage present has a escaped level for raising consciousness astir scams and different nefarious activity, acknowledgment to combined efforts from Circle, Aave, TRM Labs, Civic, Hedera, The Solana Foundation and Binance.US. 

The online platform, called Chainabuse, offers some individuals and businesses a spot to supply consciousness astir fraud successful crypto and finance. Additionally, the level includes a database of hacks and scams.

Goldman Sachs and Barclays put successful UK crypto trading level Elwood

Elwood Technologies, an organization crypto trading platform, has secured concern from 2 mainstream giants: Barclays and Goldman Sachs. Part of a Series A backing round, the investments from the mega banks came alongside different players, specified arsenic Galaxy Digital. 

Goldman sees expanding organization crypto interest, according to planetary caput of integer assets Matthew McDermott. “As organization request for cryptocurrency rises, we person been actively broadening our marketplace beingness and capabilities to cater for lawsuit demand,” helium said.

Winners and Losers

At the extremity of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is astatine $29,037, Ether (ETH) astatine $1,943 and XRP astatine $0.40. The full marketplace headdress is astatine $1.24 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the apical 3 altcoin gainers of the week are Kyber Network Crystal v2 (KNC) astatine 46.16%, KuCoin Token (KCS) astatine 19.99% and Kadena (KDA) astatine 17.37%. 

The apical 3 altcoin losers of the week are TerraUSD (UST) astatine -62.18%, Convex Finance (CVX) astatine -23.47% and Helium (HNT) astatine -21.56%.

For much info connected crypto prices, marque definite to work Cointelegraph’s marketplace analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“When the marketplace is hot, it’s hard to absorption due to the fact that determination is truthful overmuch noise.”

Aleksandra Artamonovskaja, partnerships pb astatine Joyn

“Focusing connected and investing successful idiosyncratic acquisition is the roadworthy to wide adoption and to the caller satellite of Web3.”

Dominik Schiener, co-founder and president of the Iota Foundation

“Ethereum’s overwhelming mindshare helps explicate wherefore its users person been consenting to wage much than $15 cardinal successful fees per time connected mean conscionable to usage the blockchain.”

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)

“If you make an algorithmic stablecoin and you don’t expect speculative attacks, invited to the existent world.”

Mike McGlone, elder commodity strategist for Bloomberg

“ESG is simply a scam. It has been weaponized by phony societal justness warriors.”

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla

“Crypto arsenic a exertion and plus people introduces worth and innovation that are unsocial and irreplaceable, and we judge that 1 atrocious pome successful the abbreviated tally volition not impact semipermanent request for crypto assets and the manufacture arsenic a whole.”

Jun Du, co-founder of Huobi Global

Prediction of the Week 

Bitcoin terms predictions abound arsenic traders absorption connected the adjacent BTC halving cycle

Bitcoin remained successful the doldrums this week, reflecting uncertainty and subdued request crossed the integer plus space. Speculation connected wherever BTC mightiness caput adjacent revolves astir the timing of the asset’s four-year halving cycle, arsenic good arsenic Bitcoin’s erstwhile terms action. One imaginable outcome, based connected the halving cycle, sees BTC’s terms perchance bottoming successful the last 2 months of 2022. Some speculators, however, stay hopeful for an upcoming $100,000 blow-off apical for BTC.

FUD of the Week 

Deus Finance’s dollar-pegged stablecoin DEI falls beneath 60 cents

DEI, an algorithmic stablecoin of the Deus Finance project, declined to $0.52 earlier this week. The plus was meant to clasp worth connected par with $1. However, DEUS, the project’s governance token, accrued importantly successful price, reaching $327.28 astatine 1 point, up from $163.40. The DEI terms illness came aft the protocol experienced 2 flash indebtedness attacks successful caller months. Fears of a UST-style slope tally connected the plus besides compelled Deus Finance developers to intermission DEI redemptions.

South Korean watchdog reportedly fines Terraform Labs $78M for taxation evasion

Terraform Labs and Do Kwon reportedly indispensable wage $78 cardinal owed to taxation evasion, according to quality outlet Naver. The taxation evasion charges travel from South Korea’s taxation authority. 

This is not the archetypal clip Terraform Labs has raised reddish flags connected taxation evasion. The institution archetypal appeared connected taxation authorities’ radar successful June 2021 connected suspicions of firm and income taxation evasion.

Axie Infinity’s Discord bot compromised, hackers contented fake minting message

The Discord transmission for GameFi NFT task Axie Infinity saw its MEE6 bot (a commonly-used instrumentality connected Discord for transmission management) compromised this week. Among its wrongful actions, the apprehended bot enactment retired an untrue minting announcement. MEE6 bot takeovers are reportedly thing new. The concern was fixed, though users whitethorn person to restart Discord for the changes to instrumentality effect. The MEE6 Discord enactment transmission did not admit the suspicious activity.

Best Cointelegraph Features

What truly goes connected astatine a crypto OTC desk?

“Odds are that a azygous seller successful the bid publication is not capable to transact specified a ample magnitude arsenic 100 BTC. Hence, you volition request to bargain from aggregate sellers astatine higher prices.”

Life-changing money: The 10 astir costly NFTs sold to date

With nonfungible tokens raking successful unthinkable prices, person a look astatine the 10 astir costly NFTs sold to date.

Indian government’s ‘blockchain not crypto’ stance highlights deficiency of understanding

India’s “blockchain, not crypto” stance has led to disastrous crypto policies, forcing respective thriving crypto firms to relocate.

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