KRW

While the New LUNA Records Gains, Do Kwon’s Terraform Labs Is Plagued by Controversy and Accusations

30/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

While the New LUNA Records Gains, Do Kwon's Terraform Labs Plagued by Controversy and Accusations

It’s been two days since the Terra development team launched the new Phoenix-1 blockchain with the network’s native token LUNA. While the token dropped significantly in value during the first day of trading, the new LUNA has jumped 8.8% in value during the last 24 hours. Amid the token’s 24-hour rise, controversy continues to plague Do Kwon and Terraform Labs. Moreover, the old token, luna classic (LUNC), has been climbing in value as the crypto asset has gained more than 70% during the last day.

New LUNA Coin Jumps Over 8% Higher on Monday, Token Is Still Down More Than 64% From the Recent Price High

It’s been roughly more than 48 hours since the birth of the new Terra blockchain and crypto asset LUNA. During the first couple of hours of trading, the new LUNA changed hands at an all-time high (ATH) at $18.87 per coin. Presently, the price is 64% lower than the ATH, even with today’s gains. According to coinmarketcap.com stats, there’s 210,000,000 LUNA tokens in circulation, but the web portal notes the number is not 100% verified.

The number of coins in circulation times LUNA’s current value shows that the coin’s market capitalization is around $1.35 billion today. The coin’s 24-hour trading range has been between $5.51 and $6.74 per unit on May 30, 2022. Currently, LUNA has around $145 million in global trade volume over the last 24 hours, but that’s down 48.6% since yesterday. The most active exchanges trading LUNA today include Gate.io, Okx, Bybit, Mexc, and Kucoin, respectively.

A great majority of LUNA is vested and this was explained prior to the airdrop. While many people were airdropped the new LUNA, a majority of people’s stake was airdropped bonded and the coins cannot be spent for a specified amount of time. The new Terra chain does not have an algorithmic stablecoin anymore, and many of the defi protocols that were once operational are now broken. In fact, the purpose of the new Terra coin is unknown because without UST and defi applications like Anchor, there are arguably very few use cases for the new LUNA.

Terraform Labs Summoned, Company K, and Accusations of Funneling a Premine Through CHAI

In addition to launching the new Phoenix-1 blockchain, Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon and the company have been slammed with significant criticism and controversy. On May 17, Bitcoin.com News reported on South Korean law enforcement officials investigating the Terra blockchain project and the company Terraform Labs. Local media is now reporting that the entire Terraform Labs staff has been summoned by South Korean officials. Bitcoin.com News also reported on Do Kwon dissolving Terraform Labs before the UST de-pegging incident and LUNC’s death spiral.

This tweet did not age well.

The guy who wrote this? His buggy code was committed into Mirror Protocol in June 2021, creating a hole that allowed an attacker to drain $88m from users just a few months later. https://t.co/NaFDvYnUZo https://t.co/wdjMUtZZC3

— FatMan (@FatManTerra) May 29, 2022

Furthermore, there’s the Twitter account called “@fatmanterra (Fatman)” that has explained a lawsuit is being planned in order to compensate Terra victims. Furthermore, Fatman has been accusing the team behind Terra of rigging things like Mirror Protocol, a decentralized and synthetic stock exchange. Fatman detailed that the application was “really just a farce designed to enrich Do Kwon/VCs.” Just recently, Fatman published another thread that discusses a Terra-related organization called “company K.” Fatman claims that company K was a “’blockchain consultancy firm’ they spun up in order to launder money and evade taxes.”

Company K was also covered by the South Korean local news outlet KBS. “Employees from company K had great overlap with employees from Terra and often shared the same spaces,” Fatman wrote on Twitter. “Both were incorporated in 2018. Most in company K’s employ were straight-up Terra developers. Company K’s CEO, Mo Kim, vehemently denied any major affiliations.” Fatman added:

Why is this interesting? Well, Korea’s tax authorities reported that last year, Terra sent 6 billion won ($4.8m) to company K’s CEO. This was reported on the books as ‘other expenses.’

Fatman has also published a thread about Do Kwon being involved in a premine project that allegedly worked in unison with Daniel Shin’s CHAI. According to Fatman’s claims, Do Kwon and Terrform Labs (TFL) premined a coin called SDT and the team was reportedly able to cash out the coin using Terra’s KRW stablecoin.

This chart perplexes me. The CHAI x Terra partnership that settled real world transactions on-chain with $KRT ended in 2020 yet there is no corresponding hiccup in $KRT transaction volumes. Why? pic.twitter.com/iLaVr27OsU

— FreddieRaynolds (@FreddieRaynolds) May 28, 2022

“A cheeky little system was set up: when SDT is burned, Terra’s KRT (a KRW stablecoin) can then be issued to stores through CHAI,” Fatman said. “This can now be cashed out off-platform via an exchange. As long as there’s enough retail volume to mask it, it’ll go unnoticed.” Fatman continued:

While there was some genuine CHAI usage, the vast majority of it was simply TFL cashing out tens of millions of dollars through the SDT/KRT scheme, hoping nobody would notice. It was a way of turning their printed internet money into real money – retail demand.

LUNC Pumps 70%, Supporters Hope It Will Hit $1

In addition to the accusations and controversy surrounding Do Kwon and his team, luna classic (LUNC) has jumped 70% higher in the last 24 hours. Vertical trends on Twitter show a lot of people trying to shill and pump the classic coin, and a few of them seem to believe the token — that trades well below a U.S. penny — will someday be $1 per unit. LUNC trading has been very active during the last 24 hours as numerous crypto exchanges have resumed luna classic trading after suspending the coin since the second week of May.

What do you think about the new LUNA token and recent LUNC gains? What do you think about the accusations concerning Do Kwon’s Terraform Labs? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Terra Community Plans to Vote on Forking the Chain — Launch May Airdrop a Billion New Tokens to Network Participants

17/05/2022 by Idelto Editor

Following the aftermath of Terra’s UST implosion, the blockchain project’s founder Do Kwon has been actively discussing the Terra ecosystem revival plans and one specific proposal will be voted on May 18. The plan is to fork the blockchain into a new chain that does not include an algorithmic stablecoin, and the newly minted tokens from the network will be airdropped to Terra ecosystem participants and holders.

Terra Community Members Plan to Vote on a Fork Proposal to Revive the Broken Project

Last week the Terra blockchain ecosystem was obliterated and the project’s native tokens lost significant value. At the time of writing, a single LUNA token is trading for under a U.S. penny and the once-stable coin terrausd (UST) is changing hands for $0.09 per unit. During the last few days, Terra’s team — Terraform Labs — and the community have been discussing how to remedy the project’s fallout and give value back to the blockchain’s participants and holders. On May 16, Terra’s founder Do Kwon published a revival plan that aims to fix the project’s problems, and the proposal will be voted on Wednesday, May 18.

The proposal called “Terra Ecosystem Revival Plan 2” aims to fork the blockchain into a new chain that doesn’t involve adding an algorithmic stablecoin. The old chain will be called “token Luna Classic or LUNC” and the new chain will inherit the original branding by being called “Terra LUNA.” Following the split, the new tokens will be airdropped to Luna Classic holders, stakers, application developers, and residual UST holders. The wallet owned and operated by Terraform Labs (TFL) will be removed from the airdrop entirely.

Kwon says the “Terra ecosystem and its community are worth preserving” and the application ecosystem built on Terra has hundreds of developers. Terra Station has more than a million users worldwide and Kwon believes despite the recent fallout, “[Terra has a] strong brand recognition and a name that almost everyone in the world will have heard about.” Details concerning the token distribution note that there will be 1,000,000,000 new LUNA tokens tied to the Terra chain.

25% will be dispersed to the community pool for staked governance and 1% will be allocated to essential developers with no lockup period. 4% will be dispersed to essential developers after a one-year cliff and four-year vesting period. 35% will go to all bonded and unbonded LUNA stakers except for TFL. Wallets with one million LUNA or less will have different vesting periods. 10% will go to LUNA holders and 25% will go to UST holders.

Community Responses Indicate People Disagree With the Terra Revival Proposal

The proposal says that a “pre-attack snapshot” will be taken at Terra Classic block number 7,544,914. The chain fork will commence a few hours after the launch snapshot is taken and an estimated date for the new Terra network launch will occur on May 27, 2022. The proposal seems to have a lot of people who do not like the plan, while others favor the idea brought to the table. One individual wrote: “This is an interesting proposal and I’m glad the community will move forward with a new chain.” Another person against the idea said:

No one wants a fork. Just burn the current LUNA and fix the current algorithm to get back UST peg.

Some people did not like Kwon saying that “Terra was more than just UST.” “I agree that Terra is more than $UST,” the individual replied to Kwon’s post. “There should be a stable for all 180 fiat currencies. I do not want a fork. I believe 99% of the value of Terra remains in the current incarnation of the system.” Kwon thinks the proposal is “a chance to rise up — anew from the ashes” similar to a phoenix.

In fact, Terra did have a suite of fiat currencies in addition to the most used and most popular UST stablecoin. Terra’s KRW stablecoin was popular as well, but the token de-pegged from the Korean won’s value. A single KRW is worth $0.00079 today while the blockchain-based terrakrw token is only worth $0.00006945.

What do you think about the proposal that aims to fork the Terra chain and airdrop tokens to the network’s participants? Do you think the idea is viable? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Binance Discontinues Crypto Products and Services in South Korea

13/08/2021 by Idelto Editor

On August 13, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance revealed it is ending a great number of services in South Korea. The company noted in the announcement that it evaluated local regulations and “will discontinue the following offerings in Korea, effective immediately.”

Binance Ends Korean Crypto Services

Last week, former CEO of Binance US and former acting Comptroller of the Currency, Brian Brooks, announced that he was leaving his position at the exchange. Prior to that HSBC suspended payments tied to Binance and the company also discontinued derivatives products in Hong Kong. On Friday, Binance announced that it will not be offering products and services in South Korea.

“As Binance constantly evaluates its product and service offerings to proactively comply with local regulations,” Binance said, “we will discontinue the following offerings in Korea, effective immediately.”

The products and services that Binance has suspended in South Korea include:

KRW trading pairs
KRW payment options
P2P merchant applications
Korean language website support

Binance also disclosed that the crypto exchange would be discontinuing services that stem from the peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange it operates. “Binance P2P will remove KRW trading pairs on Friday, 2021-08-13 at 11:00 UTC (20:00 UTC+9). Users are advised to complete all related P2P trades and remove related trade advertisements,” the trading platform noted.

Additionally, Binance said that it is not offering any products and services in the Korean language and it does not offer any Korean communication channels. “Please also note that we are not operating any official Telegram or other online communication channels in Korean,” Binance concluded.

What do you think about Binance suspending services in South Korea? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Bitcoin.com Partners With Mecon Cash, Enabling BCH to Korean Won Withdrawal at Over 13,000 ATMs Across South Korea

20/01/2020 by Idelto Editor

Bitcoin Cash has been added to Mecon Cash’s M.Pay platform which is integrated with over 13,000 ATMs in South Korea. By making bitcoin cash usable for withdrawing won across the country, Mecon Cash is ensuring that BCH users in Korea can always make urgent and small transactions in any place that still does not accept peer-to-peer electronic cash directly.

Also Read: First Bitcoin Cash Developers Meeting of 2020 to Be Held Today

Bitcoin Cash Integrated Into Platform With Over 13,000 ATMs in South Korea

South Korean cryptocurrency company Mecon Cash has integrated BCH into its payments platform M.Pay following a cooperation agreement with Bitcoin.com. The platform is connected to one of the biggest providers of ATMs, so bitcoin cash can now be used to withdraw to Korean won through M.Pay in more than 13,000 ATMs in South Korea at South Korea’s biggest convenience store chains GS25 and Mini Stop.

The main target demographic for the new service is cryptocurrency holders who need quick cash as well as people who send over $6 billion in remittances to Korea from overseas each year. Mecon Cash also operates other services in addition to payments, including an e-commerce platform that allows users to buy a wide range of products (Mecon Mall) and mobile games that utilize M.Pay for rewards. Bitcoin Cash is now available to be used on these as well, and you can expect more interesting collaborations with Bitcoin.com to be announced in the future.

“Through our partnership with Bitcoin.com, we will grow the presence of Bitcoin Cash throughout the Korean market starting with the ATM withdrawal services. We have huge applications coming up where the close collaboration between Mecon Cash and Bitcoin.com will see positive synergies in the upcoming future not only in the Korean market but also the global market,” stated Chairman of Mecon Cash, Jo Jae Do.

“Mecon Cash is enabling Bitcoin Cash to be used at 13,700 ATM locations across Korea,” commented Bitcoin.com Executive Chairman Roger Ver. “Bitcoin.com is proud to be working with Mecon to help bring Bitcoin Cash and Mecon Cash to Korea and to the world.”

Promoting the BCH Ecosystem

Consistently among the top digital assets in the world by market cap, Bitcoin Cash is accepted by most crypto service providers. It also powers the Simple Ledger Protocol infrastructure which already includes more than 6,000 SLP tokens created since August 2018.

As part of its mission to bring economic freedom to the world, Bitcoin.com is strongly promoting BCH adoption as peer-to-peer electronic money, as well as the development of the surrounding ecosystem, with all its business partners. For example, last year the electronics manufacturer HTC added native bitcoin cash support to its flagship smartphone, Exodus 1, following a partnership with the company.

It was also recently revealed that Bitcoin.com is planning to launch a $200 million BCH investment fund this year that will focus on payment related solutions and non-custodial financial services for Bitcoin Cash. The fund will invest in and incubate BCH businesses like payment gateways, processors, remittances, wallet and merchant acquirers.

What do you think about Bitcoin.com partnering with Mecon Cash to enable bitcoin cash to Korean won withdrawal at over 13,000 ATMs across South Korea? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Bitcoin.com Markets, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com.

The post Bitcoin.com Partners With Mecon Cash, Enabling BCH to Korean Won Withdrawal at Over 13,000 ATMs Across South Korea appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Survey Shows South Koreans Increased Crypto Holdings by 64% Last Year

23/04/2019 by Idelto Editor

Over the last few years, South Korea has become a hotspot for cryptocurrencies and the region captures a large amount of the world’s digital asset trade volume. A survey published on April 20 by the Korea Financial Investment Association shows that the average South Korean cryptocurrency trader has increased their crypto holdings by 64.2% over the last year.

Also read: Central Bank Digital Currencies Take Center Stage at IMF Spring Meetings

South Korean Crypto Investors Increase Holdings

The South Korean news outlet Arirang Daily News revealed the results of a new survey conducted by the Korea Financial Investment Association (KOFIA). The self-regulatory organization’s poll surveyed 2,500 South Korean residents who invested in cryptocurrencies like BCH, ETH, and BTC. Surveys help bolster KOFIA’s goal of ensuring fair trading practices are taking place and enables them to monitor South Korea’s capital market and financial investments. The results of the survey stemmed from a poll taken in December 2018 and the examination reveals 7.4% of the 2,500 individuals surveyed said they own digital currencies. Moreover, South Koreans between 25 and 64 years old who had purchased cryptocurrencies over the last year invested more than $6,000 on average.

The $6,000 average is up two-fold since the organization’s last survey. Interestingly, Arirang’s report also details that older individuals in South Korea were more inclined to invest in cryptocurrencies stating that the most common buyer was in their 50s or older. The second set of surveyed traders who participated in buying more cryptos last year were between 30 and 40 years old. It seems the crypto winter didn’t stop South Korean optimism for digital assets as the average local trader increased their crypto holdings by 64.2% in the past 12 months. The 7.4% who professed to own cryptocurrencies is also up from the year before when the last poll recorded only 6.4% of investors, which indicates traders are a touch more positive this time around.

The Last Few Months Indicate a Resurgence of South Korean Interest in Cryptos

In 2017, cryptocurrency markets were extremely popular among South Korean traders and numbers that year definitely outshone the recent KOFIA poll published this week. According to another survey, one third of South Korean workers were crypto investors in 2017 but the average investment was less at $5,260 per investor. Another difference between then and now was the amount of younger (20s and 30s) South Korean investors was about 80% of the respondents polled. At the time, the South Korean won captured a third of the world’s crypto trade volume in 2017 behind the USD and JPY. Today the currency is still usually a top five trading pair, according to data from sites like Coinlib.io and Cryptocompare.

**In the last three months, Localbitcoins volumes in South Korea have touched all-time highs, even surpassing 2017 volumes.**

The recent KOFIA survey shows positivity has increased despite the regulatory crackdowns and a hack that occurred on one of the most popular South Korean trading platforms. South Korean traders have been dealing with much stricter crypto regulations, six cryptocurrency-related bills that were submitted to the National Assembly last December, and Bithumb dealt with a hack that saw the loss of $18 million last March. However, since the cryptocurrency price trend reversal over the last two months, South Korean interest in trading digital assets is growing strong once again. During the first week of April, local traders in South Korea dealt with a ‘Kimchi Premium,’ which saw traders paying more money for cryptos compared to the average global exchange rates. Moreover, trade volumes on Localbitcoins in South Korea have surpassed 2017’s all-time highs during a few weekly periods in February, March, and April 2019.

What do you think about the increase of cryptocurrency holdings by South Korean investors? Let us know what you think about this recent survey in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Twitter, and Coin Dance.

Looking to acquire some crypto? Check out our platform that allows individuals to purchase Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Core (BTC) with a credit card. Moreover, if you want to check the prices of the top 500 crypto assets by market cap, check out Markets.Bitcoin.com today for prices in real-time!

The post Survey Shows South Koreans Increased Crypto Holdings by 64% Last Year appeared first on Bitcoin News.