| Here is a quick look at the hits from the week's latest Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter: - A U.S. judge's ruling that orders former Binance CEO to stay in the U.S. until his sentencing in February,
- Montenegrin officials' plans to extradite Do Kwon to the U.S. rather than South Korea,
- Block's new self-custody Bitcoin wallet, and more.
Enjoy your reading, and have a great weekend! Doğa
p/dogayurduneri | |
| 1 | | U.S. judge Richard Jones has ordered crypto exchange Binance's co-founder and former CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), to stay in the U.S. until his sentencing on Feb. 23, 2024. The move overruled an earlier decision by a U.S. magistrate judge that allowed CZ to return to his home in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) while awaiting sentencing. More: - The order will see CZ remain free to travel within the U.S., though he is not allowed to leave the country.
- The ultimate decision came nearly 20 days after CZ pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering requirements and U.S. sanctions by allowing terrorist groups to make crypto transactions on Binance.
- As part of the plea deal, the co-founder was ordered to pay a $50M penalty, step down as Binance CEO, and not engage in the company's management for three years.
- Zhao was later released on a $175M bond and allowed to return to his home in the UAE while waiting for sentencing.
- However, the U.S. prosecutors requested a review and overturn of the decision, stating that the former CEO would present an unacceptable flight risk.
- At the time, the prosecutors also said if the Binance co-founder decides not to come back, the government would not be able to guarantee his return since the UAE does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S.
- Judge Jones ultimately overturned the initial ruling by agreeing with the prosecutors shortly after putting the previous court decision on hold to review the issue.
Zoom Out: - CZ currently faces up to 10 years in prison, though he is expected to get no more than 18 months under a settlement agreement with U.S. regulators.
- Under the same deal, Binance also agreed to pay a $4.3B fine, one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history, to settle money laundering, unlicensed money-transmitting business operations, and sanction violations charges.
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| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: A recent report from the blockchain security firm Immunefi has pointed out that November hosted the highest monthly losses of 2023 in crypto, with $343M of losses to hacks and frauds combined. The figure represents a whopping 1,459% increase from the $22M losses recorded in the previous month. It also brought the total amount of crypto losses year-to-date to $1.75B. Crypto exchange Poloniex has become the crypto project that experienced the highest amount of losses last month after being hacked for $126M. In the top five, the platform was followed by Heco Chain, KyberSwap, HTX, and Kronos Research, respectively. The combined losses of Poloniex and Heco Chain alone made up 62% of total stolen funds last month. Relevance: In early November, Poloniex experienced a cybersecurity incident, losing $126M in crypto from one of its wallets. The breach brought the platform under the radar of regulators worldwide. Most recently, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has added Poloniex to its warning list of non-authorized companies, which advises customers to avoid dealing with these firms. Earlier in 2023, Poloniex also came under scrutiny by U.S. regulators as the Treasury Department accused it of violating the sanctions against Crimea, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria between January 2014 and November 2019. At the time, the exchange had to pay a $7.6M fine to settle the U.S. sanction violations charges. Brands that should care: On the other hand, two of the top five projects with the highest losses, HTX and Poloniex, drew attention since they are both related to the blockchain-based operating system Tron's founder, Justin Sun. The founder is currently the owner of Poloniex and is carrying out the adviser role at Seychelles-based crypto exchange HTX, formerly known as Huobi. | | | |
| 3 | | Montenegrin Justice Minister Andrej Milovic has decided to extradite Do Kwon, the co-founder of the collapsed Terra ecosystem, to the U.S. rather than sending him to his native South Korea, according to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter. The decision came two weeks after a Montenegrin court officially approved Kwon's extradition. More: - The court left the final decision on the extradition destination up to Justice Minister Milovic.
- If Milovic officially reports his decision, Kwon will be extradited to the U.S. after serving his four-month prison sentence in Montenegro for document forgery.
- Both the U.S. and South Korea have sought Do Kwon's extradition since his arrest in March, though neither has a direct extradition treaty with Montenegro.
- Kwon was arrested at the Podgorica Airport in Montenegro with Han Chang Joon, the chief financial officer of Terraform Labs, while trying to fly to Dubai carrying falsified traveling documents.
- Earlier in November, the Montenegro High Court upheld Kwon's four-month prison sentence for document forgery, rejecting their appeal.
- The move confronted the co-founder with potential extradition since his legal team argued that deposition to regulators in other countries would be impossible since there is no scheduled release date for Kwon in Montenegro.
- Kwon currently faces various charges in the U.S. and South Korea, including fraud, securities law violations, deceiving investors, racket collecting, and building a Ponzi scheme.
Zoom Out: - The multibillion-dollar Terra ecosystem collapsed last year after the prices of its native tokens, Luna and TerraUSD, plummeted nearly to zero in May and lost all their value against the U.S. dollar (USD), triggering a prolonged crypto winter.
- The downfall caused over $60B to be wiped off the crypto market.
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| 4 | | Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's digital payments company, Block, has officially launched its hotly-anticipated self-custody Bitcoin (BTC) wallet dubbed BitKey in more than 95 countries. The hexagon-shaped device will allow users to store and fully control their crypto assets without needing any third party. More: - The hardware device mainly aims to make Bitcoin storage safer, more accessible, and decentralized.
- BitKey users will be able to connect their devices to crypto exchanges and payment services, including Block's Cash App, to transfer their assets between different platforms.
- The device uses three private keys that offer users access to their digital assets, with two held by customers themselves and one residing on BitKey's servers.
- Users will hold one of the keys in the mobile app while the other one will be stored in the wallet offline, providing recovery if the mobile phone is lost.
- On the other hand, the third key kept in servers will offer assistance when an additional layer of security is needed.
Zoom Out: - Jack Dorsey first disclosed that Block was working on a new hardware wallet in 2021.
- The firm previously announced some leading crypto trading platforms, such as Cash App and the U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase, as BitKey's partners.
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| 5 | | The 279-year-old auction house Sotheby's has recently put a Bitcoin Ordinals collection up for auction for the first time in its history. The move also marked the first time the works from the BitcoinShrooms collection were made available to the public. More: - Sotheby's has put three works from the 222-piece collection up for sale so far: S, The Sovereign Individual, and BIP39 Seed.
- The price tags of the digital collectibles on sale range between $20,000 and $30,000, though the auction house also currently accepts bids in crypto.
- The auction will continue until Dec. 13.
- The BitcoinShrooms collection, created by pseudonymous artist Shroomtoshi, consists of a series of pixel art pieces, memes, and technical concepts that make a reference to Bitcoin's history, culture, and underlying principles.
- Shroomtoshi defined the collection as a pixelated recap of Bitcoin's 13-year history.
- The collection mainly aims to raise awareness about Bitcoin and its core principles.
Zoom Out: - Ordinals refer to the digital assets permanently attached to a satoshi or 1/100,000,000 of a full Bitcoin (BTC).
- The Ordinals protocol was launched by programmer Casey Rodarmor in January this year, allowing developers to inscribe various data file formats onto the Bitcoin network.
- The protocol also paved the way for Bitcoin-based NFTs, and since then, it gained massive popularity.
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| 6 | | El Salvador has recently launched a new visa program dubbed Freedom Visa that would offer residency and citizenship to individuals investing $1M of Bitcoin (BTC) or Tether (USDT) in the Central American country. Stablecoin issuer Tether will serve as the country's technology partner for the initiative. More: - Potential candidates will be able to apply to the program by investing $1M in either BTC or USDT.
- Successful applicants will later receive an El Salvadoran passport and citizenship.
- The program will be limited to 1,000 participants per year.
- El Salvador's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects the Freedom Visa to generate a $1B annual return for the country if all places are filled.
Zoom Out: - El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as a legal tender in September 2021 under the leadership of crypto-advocate Nayib Bukele, who recently stepped down as the President to focus on his re-election campaign.
- Several other countries worldwide, including Portugal, Spain, Italy, Dominica, and the U.S., also implement similar citizenship-by-investment programs that offer a chance to receive citizenship by making investments in the country.
- However, El Salvador's Freedom Visa initiative is ten times more expensive than its equivalents.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Want to master Kubernetes? The Kubernetes Cookbook is a must-have guide to discover guidance on cloud architecture analytics, optimization, governance, and more.*
- Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has withdrawn its license application in Abu Dhabi, stating that it found the application unnecessary while assessing its global licensing needs.
- Jack Dorsey-backed decentralized crypto mining project Ocean Mining has denied Samourai Wallet's accusations that it is censoring certain transactions on the Bitcoin network.
- Solana blockchain network's founder, Anatoly Yakovenko, has implied that the future of the firm's Saga phone is uncertain due to disappointing sales and changing market dynamics.
- Toast to 2024: Key affiliate marketing trends to help your campaigns start off on the right foot in the new year. Get the free report.*
*This is a sponsored post. | | | |
 | Staff Writer | | Doga is a tech and science editor who has been writing news for nearly 10 years. She worked for leading tech platforms and mainstrem media channels as an editor and presenter throughout his career. Then, she carried her know-how to more than one platform. She is a part-time cat lover and binge-watcher, and also fond of science, space, and emerging tech. She always has a story to tell. She is a bit addict to the laughter and -unfortunately- the '90s culture. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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