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CZ Says Binance Supports Proposal to Compensate LUNA Retail Users First

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Binance’s Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has said the exchange supports the proposal to compensate retail LUNA users ahead of larger investors. He also said the LUNA tokens received by Binance in exchange for a $3 million investment in Terra have not been sold or moved.

Binance’s LUNA Tokens Not Sold

After his exchange faced criticism for its handling of LUNA tokens, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) tweeted that any compensation for LUNA holders must prioritize protecting the interests of retail users. He said Binance has already taken the lead by electing to be compensated last.

CZ Says Binance Supports Proposal to Compensate LUNA Retail Users First

In the latest Twitter thread wherein he addresses the controversy surrounding the LUNA token crash, Zhao revealed to his followers that Binance had received 15 million LUNA tokens in exchange for an investment of $3 million. According to the Binance boss, the LUNA, whose value once peaked at $1.6 billion, “still sits on the address we received at. Never moved or sold.”

Likewise, the 12,000,000 UST that Binance gained from staking over time, are also still sitting at the same address, Zhao said. He claimed these have never been moved or sold.

LUNA Users’ Reaction

Despite holding significant amounts of both LUNA and the UST stablecoin, Zhao said the Binance team had agreed with a proposal to prioritize compensating retail users first. He said:

Now the important part. To lead by example on PROTECTING USERS, Binance will let this go and ask the Terra project team to compensate the retail users first, Binance last, if ever. Binance (after a 5 min discussion) fully support this proposal.

Reacting to CZ’s endorsement of a compensation plan that was initially proposed by a Twitter user known as Persian Capital, some of the Binance CEO’s followers insisted this approach was wrong because it would place at a disadvantage those heavily invested in LUNA. The Twitter user named SEIF Motawi said:

“This is extremely wrong. What about the ones who invested money in LUNA and all of their life savings are now gone? Are they not worth being compensated as well?”

Another user, Veronica, remarked: “Brilliant! So those of us who bought UST or luna and sent it to Binance, or Metamask, or another platform, for example, got screwed. Make the rich get richer and the poor get poorer! great job.”

However, some users who claim to have lost funds are praising the position taken by the Binance CEO, but ask if this proposal can be implemented.

What are your thoughts on this story? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Stablecoin Implosion — LUNA and UST Lose Significant Value, Downturn Ripples Across the Crypto Economy

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Stablecoin Implosion — LUNA and UST Lose Significant Value, Downturn Ripples Across the Crypto Economy

During the last few days, the crypto economy has been tumultuous as billions have fled the market in search of safety. The issues with LUNA sparked a significant sell-off as Terra’s native digital asset dropped 97% in value against the U.S. dollar in 24 hours. Terrausd has slipped 67% lower than the $1 parity and was trading at a low of $0.299 per unit at 9:00 a.m. (ET).

Terra’s Native Token LUNA Loses 97%, While UST Loses 67% in 24 Hours

The Terra blockchain ecosystem has been ravaged by the events that took place over the last few days, when the network’s algorithmic stablecoin terrausd (UST) started to lose its U.S. dollar peg. Project founder Do Kwon and the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) also explained that the team was lending $1.5 billion in bitcoin (BTC) and terrausd (UST) to help defend the peg. The effort was a fruitless endeavor and UST slipped to $0.66 per coin but then, for most of the day on Tuesday, UST managed to climb back above the $0.90 region.

On Tuesday evening, UST started to plummet again and it has continued to slide to its most recent lows at $0.299 per unit. The native token LUNA suffered even more than UST, as it has lost 97% in value during the past 24 hours. LUNA has had a 24-hour price range between $33.93 per unit and $0.810 per coin. Furthermore, after Do Kwon said to stay strong and a plan was on the way, the Terra co-founder addressed the public on Twitter.

“Before anything else, the only path forward will be to absorb the stablecoin supply that wants to exit before UST can start to repeg,” Kwon said. “There is no way around it. We propose several remedial measures to aid the peg mechanism to absorb supply. First, we endorse the community proposal 1164 to Increase basepool from 50M to 100M SDR *) Decrease PoolRecoveryBlock from 36 to 18 This will increase minting capacity from $293M to ~$1200M,” the Terra co-founder added.

Kwon also said that Terra could rebound from the collapse and noted that the project was not going anywhere. “Terra’s return to form will be a sight to behold,” Kwon tweeted. The Terra founder added:

We’re here to stay. And we’re gonna keep making noise.

‘Worse Than Bitconnect’

Of course, under the circumstances of many individuals losing money and some of them losing everything, many people criticized the response from the Terra founder. The podcast host Peter McCormack asked Kwon “What % chance to you give it that the same won’t happen again?” Bitcoin supporter Hasu said the UST event was “worse than Bitconnect.” “At least Bitconnect didn’t masquerade as a stablecoin,” Hasu added. “When your ponzi targets people’s savings (not investment) portfolio, there is a special place in hell reserved for you.”

In addition to the criticism, people have been trying to buy the dip because they believe a strong comeback will happen. However, while doing so, many crypto traders are getting wrecked by the price volatility. Additionally, crypto Twitter (CT) influencers are deleting tweets that discuss UST and LUNA in a positive light. Furthermore, the crypto liquidity provider Genesis explained that the company has “no direct exposure to UST and LUNA.” Individuals are also claiming that the downfall of LUNA and UST was a “coordinated attack.” “Market manipulation at its finest,” one individual tweeted.

Other Terra supporters have been watching bots on Twitter and have stated they are certain Terra’s issues were the result of a blatant attack. There have been odd sightings of bots or Twitter accounts repeating the same statement, which can be found here, here, here, here, and here. While LUNA and UST have not yet plummeted to zero, people are either betting that they will or they believe Do Kwon and think a massive reversal is in the cards. By 10:45 a.m. (ET), UST was trading for $0.504 per unit.

CEO of Sator Says Luna Foundation and Do Kwon May Still Hold Bitcoin Reserves

Isla Perfito, the CEO of Sator, a community-first Web3 content engagement platform, said that there may be a chance the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) still holds bitcoin. “People assume LFG already sold their BTC,” Perfito told Bitcoin.com News in a statement. “That’s why UST is pricing at .40 on the dollar. In the event that they have the BTC, their backing is better. Do Kwon should provide a balance snapshot of his BTC to save UST. The CPI numbers came in higher than expected today.” The CEO of Sator added:

In my opinion, inflation has peaked. Investors are now waiting for the stock market to bottom. With UST, 1 LUNA could be exchanged for 1 UST and vice versa. This is why we observed the Luna crash — when they decided to not keep the peg, they were selling Luna coins. With that said, there’s a chance that they have reserves to save UST.

Alex Tapscott, the managing director of the digital asset group at Ninepoint Partners, explained to Bitcoin.com News on Wednesday that Terra’s issue is similar to a hedge fund exploding. “This is not unlike what happens when a large hedge fund ‘blows up’ and is forced to unwind its positions,” Tapscott explained in an email. “It becomes a price taker causing the assets its own to suffer (though often just temporarily).” Tapscott continued:

Long term the thesis on Bitcoin and crypto remains intact. Bitcoin is the first digitally native money for the internet and crypto assets as a whole represent a 2nd era of the internet – an internet of value- that will continue to transform and rethink many industries.

What do you think about the LUNA and UST fiasco and how things have been unfolding? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

UST Rebounds From $0.66 per Coin to $0.93, Crypto Community Assesses Stablecoin’s Damaged Reputation

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UST Rebounds From $0.66 per Coin to $0.93, Crypto Community Assesses Stablecoin's Damaged Reputation

On Monday, May 9, 2022, the stablecoin terrausd (UST) lost its parity with the U.S. dollar and dropped to an all-time low of $0.66 per unit. The stablecoin has been one of the most topical discussions in crypto during the past 24 hours, as many have been betting on whether it will fail or recover. However, by 9:15 a.m. (ET) on Tuesday morning, the stablecoin has managed to climb back to $0.934 per unit.

** This article has been updated at 1:00 p.m. (ET) to include commentary from an unnamed source regarding specific claims stemming from social media.

UST Stablecoin Plunged to $0.66 per Unit, Rumors Spread Like Wildfire

The Terra blockchain project has been suffering in recent times, as the network’s native asset LUNA has shed 43.6% against the U.S. dollar during the past 24 hours. Moreover, the stablecoin terrausd (UST) has also been dealing with intense pressure as the token’s value plummeted from $0.99 to a low of $0.66 per unit. On a few exchanges, UST dropped as low as $0.62 per unit during periods of extreme selling. Just before UST dipped $0.09 lower than the $1 peg, Terra’s co-founder Do Kwon told the public that the team was “deploying more capital.”

During the course of Monday evening, the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) emptied the LFG bitcoin wallet that once held approximately 70,736.37 BTC. Currently, there is zero bitcoin in the wallet as it has been drained dry. The same can be said for the LFG Gnosis safe address, as the ethereum address held $143 million on May 3. Today, the wallet holds $135.58 in ether, and a few other ERC20 tokens with small values. While LFG and Do Kwon told the public on Monday that $1.5 billion in bitcoin and UST would be lent to market makers, the current moves have been less transparent.

While UST plunged to $0.66 per unit, a large number of theories swirled around the crypto industry. There have been claims that the multinational hedge fund and financial services company Citadel was involved. However, a person familiar with the firm’s operations told Bitcoin.com News on Tuesday:

From a factual standpoint, Citadel does not trade stablecoins, including UST.

Reports further claim that Binance order books had paused during the UST sell-off. For a small period of time, Binance paused LUNA and UST withdrawals. Additionally, there’s been talk of well-known crypto funds bailing out Terra as well, by funneling billions back into the stablecoin’s ecosystem.

“There is a rumor spreading about Jump, Alameda, etc. providing another $2B to ‘bail out’ UST,” theblockcrypto head of research Larry Cermak tweeted on Monday evening. “Whether this rumor is true or not, it makes perfect sense for them to spread. The biggest question here is, even if they can get it to $1 by some miracle, the trust is irreversibly gone.”

After UST Rebounds to $0.93, People Question Trusting the Stablecoin Project, Anchor TVL Slips by 43% in a Single Day

Discussions about people losing trust in LUNA, UST, and Terra, in general, have been littered all over social media. “No matter how this ends, I don’t want people to call UST decentralized again,” the bitcoin advocate Hasu tweeted on Monday. “Even the little collateral backing it has is intransparent and controlled by a single party. Used to perform discretionary open market operations. This is like 10x worse than the Fed,” Hasu added.

Investor Lyn Alden also made a statement about the Terra disaster after she predicted it could happen last month. “Terra’s multi-billion-dollar algorithmic stablecoin UST blew up today,” Alden said. “Aside from destroying the value of LUNA, they used their bitcoin reserves to try to defend the peg, kind of like a flailing emerging market using its gold reserves to defend its FX.”

During the overnight trading sessions and into the trading sessions on Tuesday morning, UST has been recovering from the losses. So far, terrausd (UST) has managed to climb back to $0.934 per unit, or down 6% from the $1 parity. Terra’s co-founder Do Kwon has not tweeted since saying the ‘A-team’ was deploying capital, even though the co-founder is very well-known for defending his project. At the same time, LFG has also not updated the public since its last tweet, which said it would provide more updates.

In addition to the problems with LUNA’s and UST’s price, the decentralized finance (defi) lending protocol Anchor has shed 43.7% of its total value locked (TVL) during the past 24 hours. At the time of writing, Anchor has a TVL of around $7.22 billion and $95.08 million is Avalanche-based collateral. Anchor was once the third-largest defi protocol, and it has dropped down to the sixth position on Tuesday.

Many wonder what’s going to happen if UST regains its $1 parity with trust in the stablecoin so shaken. Many UST owners could be waiting for the $0.99 area or close to that range, so they can cash out of the stablecoin and move into something else. At $0.934141, UST is closer to the $1 parity, but an investment of 5,000 UST would only equate to $4,670.70 at current prices.

What do you think about the Terra project’s issues and the recent UST de-pegging? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Spanish Securities Regulator Orders Binance to Stop Offering Cryptocurrency Derivatives

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The Spanish securities regulator, the CNMV, has ordered Binance to stop offering cryptocurrency derivative products to customers in the country. According to local media, the crypto exchange giant has followed the orders of the regulator, withdrawing these products from its customers in Spain.

Spanish Securities Regulator Sets Eyes on Binance

The CNMV, which is the Spanish securities regulator, is putting more pressure on exchanges offering cryptocurrency-linked derivatives in the country. Binance, one of the biggest exchanges in the world by volume traded, has been required to drop the offer of cryptocurrency-related derivatives, like futures contracts, for customers in the country, according to local media.

The purpose of the measure is ostensibly to protect investors using such products as investment tools. The regulator warned last year about the danger of derivatives, stating they increase the complexity of trading operations, and also can cause investors to lose even more than the initial investment capital.

Binance has reportedly withdrawn all of its derivatives offerings from its investments page for Spanish users, preventing them from opening new operations. However, the operations that were already open are being maintained in the same state, as the exchange awaits more feedback from the regulator.

Gray List

Binance is following the orders of the Spanish regulator as a way of getting the needed permits to establish its operations in the country. Currently, the exchange is in regulatory limbo, being mentioned in a gray list that was published last year with several cryptocurrency exchanges that also operate in Spain. However, Binance has been in talks with the CNMV to get out of this current state and get approval from the Bank of Spain.

The exchange has been in talks to get licenses from the Bank of Spain and the securities regulator since January, but there has not been a positive answer from either as of writing. At the time, Alberto Ortiz, country manager of Binance in Spain, declared:

By joining the Bank of Spain registry we hope to encourage other firms to do the same.

However, other exchanges have already been greenlighted by the Bank of Spain. Bit2me, a local exchange, was the first one to receive this license, and others have followed since.

What do you think about the restriction imposed by the CNMV on Binance in Spain? Tell us in the comments section below.

Finder’s Experts Predict Apecoin Will End 2022 at $27 per Token, 75% Think APE Is Just ‘Another Memecoin’

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On April 28, 2022, the crypto asset apecoin tapped an all-time high (ATH) tapping $26.70 per unit and the digital currency has taken the 25th largest market capitalization among 13,371 cryptocurrencies. The same day, the product comparison platform Finder published its prediction report that covers apecoin’s market performance and Finder’s surveyed panelists predict apecoin will end the year at $27 per unit.

Finder’s Experts Predict Apecoin’s Future Value


This week finder.com published a new prediction report that polled 36 financial technology (fintech) specialists in order to forecast the future price of apecoin (APE). The digital currency has made waves in recent times and has propelled itself to the 25th largest market capitalization position as of April 28. Furthermore, APE reached an ATH on Thursday, skyrocketing to $26.70 per APE. However, APE has shed roughly 15% since the price high.

Finder’s poll predicts APE will reach $27.70 per coin by the end of 2022, and by the end of 2025, APE will be $25. 50% of the panel says it’s time to sell APE, 33% of the 36 fintech specialists insist people should hold apecoin, and 17% say people should buy. Three-quarters of all the panelists believe apecoin (APE) is simply another meme coin asset like DOGE or SHIB.

The fintech lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology, Dimitrios Salampasis, is very bullish about APE and thinks it could reach $45 by the year’s end. Although, Salampasis believes APE will only be worth $10 by 2030. “The current hype of NFTs is impacting the price of apecoin,” Salampasis said. “I am of the opinion that all these overhyped crypto assets will gradually disappear and lose their value because their utility potentialities are trivial.”

Digitalx Executive Believes Apecoin Will Be Worth Zero by 2030


Another person who is bullish about APE’s price is Thomson Reuters’ technologist and futurist Joseph Raczynski as he believes APE could reach $100 by 2030. Finder.com’s co-founder Fred Schebesta also believes APE could reach $100 by 2030, but his 2022 forecast was below the panel average. Schebesta said he expects apecoin to end the year at $20 per unit. One bearish point of view came from Matthew Harry, the head of funds at Digitalx Asset Management.

The Digitalx executive thinks APE’s current value is based on hype and he thinks by the year 2030, apecoin will be worth zero. “It looks to be an obvious play on the currently hyped themes of DAOs, Web3, and BAYC/Degen,” Harry explained in the report. “Have seen a thousand iterations of hypecoins designed to bring fresh retail capital into the space and not deliver.” While 75% of the panel believes APE is just “another memecoin,” 20% think APE has a future and 5% of the panelists said they were “unsure” about apecoin.

What do you think about Finder’s prediction report that covers apecoin’s future value? Do you think apecoin is just another memecoin? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.