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Report on Kwon’s Escape to Dubai in Sept is True: Korean Prosecutors

by Blockchain NewsOctober 21, 2022

Prosecutors in Seoul have said that a report about crypto fugitive Do Kwon’s departure from Singapore to Dubai in September is true. They added that his travel to Dubai is likely a stopover to another destination.

Bloomberg released the information stating that “prosecutors in Seoul said in a text message late Thursday that a report Kwon had left Singapore and flown to Dubai likely as a stopover to destinations unknown ‘was not false.'”

Kwon faces charges in South Korea and has been accused of breaching capital-markets law. Although he has said he is ready to cooperate with the authorities, Kwon has kept his location a mystery, citing that he has received death threats.

Kwon went incognito in September after officials said he was no longer in Singapore, where his project had a base.

“It’s not in the interest of being on the run,” he said. “I don’t want to disclose where I live. It’s just that every time the location where I live becomes known, it becomes almost impossible for me to live there.”

According to Blockchain.News, Kwon and five other Terraform Labs executives face allegations of breaching capital markets laws in South Korea. They were issued an arrest warrant on September 13 from the court in Seoul for allegedly violating the nation’s capital markets law after the highly-publicized collapse of its algorithmic stablecoin UST and its associated token Luna in May.

Almost two weeks later, a red notice from Interpol was issued for his arrest after a request from prosecutors in South Korea, making him a fugitive in almost 200 countries across the globe.

According to The Korea Times, South Korean investigation authorities have requested neighbouring countries to cooperate in identifying Kwon’s specific whereabouts.

The Korea Times also reported that according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kwon’s passport would soon be invalidated.

He has until November 2, 2022, following which he will be barred from entering any country legally if he fails to give up his passport. Previously, he was ordered to surrender his passport on October 5. However, he refused to comply.

In May, Kwon’s Terraform Labs crypto project suffered a $60 billion implosion. It had a wider impact that affected the overall crypto market, which convulsed the digital-asset sector and saddled investors with losses.

Currently, the crypto sector still remains rattled by the downfall of the stablecoin, and recovery is still under process.

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Crypto Fugitive Kwon Denies Hiding from Authorities

by Blockchain NewsSeptember 27, 2022

Terraform Labs co-founder has denied being in hiding after South Korean authorities asked Interpol to issue a red notice for his arrest.

“Yeah, as I said, I’m making zero effort to hide. I go on walks and malls, no way none of CT hasn’t run into me the past couple weeks,” Do Kwon tweeted.

The red notice has exposed hugely risky practices in the digital assets industry.

Kwon faces South Korean charges over a $60 billion cryptocurrency wipeout.

According to prosecutors in Seoul, law enforcement globally has been requested to locate and arrest the 31-year-old Kwon.

The red notice came after a South Korean court issued a warrant for Kwon’s arrest on Sept 14, and days later, after he claimed he was not on the run, South Korean prosecutors asked Interpol to issue a red notice against him.

Kwon moved to Singapore from South Korea earlier this and until recently, his whereabouts showed that he was still in the city-state. However, his location has become unknown after the local police on Sept 17 said that he was no longer in the city-state.

Kwon and five other Terraform Labs executives face allegations that they breached capital markets laws in South Korea. They were issued an arrest warrant on Sept 13 from the court in Seoul for allegedly violating the nation’s capital markets law.

The fall of the Terra Platform in May led to the historic collapse of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoins, which has affected the faith of many people in the digital-asset sector. Currently, the crypto sector still remains rattled by the downfall of the stablecoin, and recovery is still under process.

The ecosystem collapsed when TerraUSD – also known as UST – crumbled from its dollar peg and brought down the ecosystem he had built, after which the prices of both tokens tumbled to near zero, a shadow of the combined $60 billion they once controlled.

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Tagged : Bitcoin / Blockchain / DOKWON / News / SOUTHKOREA / TERRAFORMLABS

Interpol Issues Red Notice for Terra’s Kwon

by Blockchain NewsSeptember 26, 2022

Terraform Labs co-founder has been issued with a red notice from Interpol, prosecutors in South Korea claim, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Following the red notice, law enforcement worldwide has the authority to locate and arrest Do Kwon. Interpol coordinates policing efforts between countries.

Kwon is facing a charge related to the US$60 billion wipeout of cryptocurrencies he created.

The news came after a South Korean court issued a warrant for Kwon’s arrest on Sept 14, and days later, after he claimed he was not on the run, South Korean prosecutors asked Interpol to issue a red notice against him.

The red notice has exposed hugely risky practices in the digital assets industry.

Kwon and five other Terraform Labs executives face allegations that they breached capital markets laws in South Korea. They have been issued an arrest warrant on Sept 13 from the court in Seoul for allegedly violating the nation’s capital markets law.

Furthermore, the collapse of Terraform Labs’ associated tokens – LUNA and the UST stablecoin – effectively ushered in the first wave of the crypto winter.

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Tagged : Bitcoin / Blockchain / DOKWON / Interpol / News / SOUTHKOREA / TERRAFORMLABS

World Vision Accepts Donations in Crypto in South Korea

by Blockchain NewsSeptember 7, 2022

World Vision has become the first NGO to accept virtual assets in South Korea as it announced that donation in cryptocurrencies has been enabled.

Per the official website of the NGO, the charitable institution has parented with the Giving Block, accepting over 70 kinds of cryptos for its donation, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and other ERC-20-based tokens.

All the transferred donations would be used for a unique charity project, helping underprivileged children globally.

Local media outlets reported earlier that the partnership enables the NGO to become the first charity institution to receive virtual assets as a donation.

To appreciate the kindness of donation, World Vision would issue sponsorship certificates in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in return. Donors would also have opportunities to win an exclusive NFT that the charity has minted in association with the South Korean footballing superstar Son Heung-min. Per the report, these NFTs will be minted on the Ethereum blockchain network.

“We have prepared a digital asset sponsorship site to ensure transparency and reliability in the execution of donations. We will take the lead in expanding the blockchain-based donation culture to help more vulnerable children,” said Cho Myung-hwan, Chairman of World Vision.

Taxpayers could be charged in terms of capital gain. The official website reads, “the IRS (Internal Revenue Service of the US) classifies cryptocurrencies as property, so crypto donations to 501(c)(3) charities receive the same tax treatment as stocks. Donating cryptocurrency is a non-taxable event, meaning you do not owe capital gains tax on the appreciated amount and can deduct it from your taxes.”

Previously, South Korea’s parliament postponed the proposal of imposing a 20% crypto tax for capital gain until 2025.

South Korea aims to develop crypto and Web3.0 ecosystem

The peninsula country is regarded as one of the crypto-friendly countries in Asia; crypto trading and custody have already been legalized in the country.

Several flagship companies intended to establish a crypto-related exchange in the country. Samsung Securities, Mirae Asset Securities, and five other giant brokerage companies have applied for preliminary approval to operate an exchange within the first half of 2023.

President Yoon proposes developing the Digital Asset Basic Act (DABA), which he plans to introduce to lawmakers in 2023, aiming to provide a comprehensive regulation for the industry before introducing taxation.

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Tagged : Crypto / Donation / Industry / SOUTHKOREA / WORLDVISION

FTX and Busan Reaches Deal to Accelerate Blockchain Businesses

by Blockchain NewsAugust 31, 2022

The South Korean city of Busan and FTX cryptocurrency exchange has signed a business deal to support the establishment of Busan Digital Asset Exchange.

According to the agreement statement, FTX will help the South Korean city build its own exchange called the Busan Digital Asset Exchange and provide it with technical and infrastructure support.

Despite the adverse events surrounding the cryptocurrency ecosystem that has seen the closure of several crypto companies, FTX continues to stand at a high level and the transactions signed to continue to appreciate the public profile of the blockchain industry.

Through this cooperation, the development of Busan’s cryptocurrency ecosystem will be promoted, making it a cryptocurrency centre of global attention.

In addition, the two parties will jointly promote blockchain-specific education in cooperation with universities in the Busan area and various projects to supervise the free zone using the Busan blockchain.

And assisted in organizing the three-day “Blockchain Week” scheduled to be held in Busan from October 27th this year and participating in the three-day “Blockchain Week” held in Busan BEXCO.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun said he would spare no effort to make Busan a blockchain hub and added that: “With this agreement, we will help establish the Busan Digital Asset Exchange and secure a new growth engine for the local economy.”

Prior to this, the South Korean city of Busan announced that it would sign a commercial agreement with Binance on the establishment of the Busan Digital Asset Exchange to build a cooperation system.

On August 27, Yong-beom Kim, former first deputy minister of the Ministry of Planning and Finance of South Korea, will join Hashed Open Research, a blockchain, and digital technology research institute, as CEO.

Samsung Securities, Mirae Asset Securities, and five other giant brokerage companies have applied for preliminary approval to operate a crypto exchange within the first half of 2023.

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Tagged : Bitcoin / Blockchain / Busan / Crypto / FTX / Industry / SOUTHKOREA

16 Crypto Platforms Including KuCoin Serving Illegally in South Korea: Regulator

by Blockchain NewsAugust 19, 2022

The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU), a top financial regulator in South Korea, on Thursday urged its local consumers using overseas cryptocurrency exchanges to verify whether such platforms have been registered under the Korean financial authority.

The watchdog disclosed that a total of 16 virtual asset service providers (VASPs) have failed to register themselves with the financial authority and are therefore regarded as illegal business operators in South Korea.

The regulator identified the crypto exchanges as follows: KuCoin, MEXC, Phemex, XT.com, Bitrue, ZB.com, Bitglobal, CoinW, CoinEX, AAX, ZoomEX, Poloniex, BTCEX, BTCC, DigiFinex, and Pionex.

The KoFIU stated that it has informed the investigative authority about the illegal crypto exchanges targeting Korean users by providing Korean-language services.

The financial regulator further said it has requested the Korea Communications Commission to block the companies’ website access to local users to prevent their unregistered business activities in the country.

In July last year, the KoFIU informed foreign virtual asset service providers, which are attracting Korean users, to register themselves with the financial regulator.

So far, the 16 platforms have failed to conduct the required registration obligation within the given timeframe.

In a statement on Thursday, the KoFIU said: “Virtual asset users should check whether the VASPs that they are dealing with are legitimately registered with the authority according to the law.”

The watchdog mentioned that it will continue closely monitoring illegal business activities by unregistered firms.

Strengthening the local Digital Asset Markets

South Korea’s crypto market grew to more than 55 trillion Korean won (US$42 billion) at the end of 2021, with a total number of users reaching over 15 million people, according to statistics by the KoFIU.

The crash that hit the crypto market in May and June this year adversely affected the Korean market at its prime — affecting around 280,000 investors in South Korea, with many claiming to have lost their life savings and some even taking their own lives.

Dealing with the repercussions of the multi-billion Terra-LUNA disaster, regulators in South Korea recently began embarking on reforms in the digital assets sector.

The authorities promised to build infrastructure for digital finance innovation by developing a regulatory framework for emerging digital sectors like crypto assets and fractional investments, among other things, including the direct involvement of banks in the country’s US$42 billion crypto industry.

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Tagged : Crypto / Cryptocurrency / KOFIU / News / SOUTHKOREA

South Korean VC Firm Hashed Lost Up to $3.6B to LUNA Crash: CEO

by Blockchain NewsAugust 4, 2022

With many crypto companies notably finding it difficult to share the extent to which the collapse of TerraUSD (UST) and LUNA coins affected their businesses, Simon Seojoon Kim, the Chief Executive Officer of South Korean venture capital firm Hashed, has revealed how much the firm lost when Terra collapse back in May.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Kim revealed that Hashed acquired as many as 30 million LUNA tokens when the project was still in its infancy. The investment grew alongside the protocol, and at the time when LUNA attained its All-Time High (ATH) back in May, the venture capital investments in the token have grown to $3.6 billion.

Kim did not reveal that Hashed sold any of the tokens prior to the crash but noted that despite the crash, his firm still believes in the potential locked up in the digital currency ecosystem. In light of this, Kim told Bloomberg that Hashed is looking to raise a new funding round with the projection to back gaming protocols building in the Wbe3.0 world.

“In the tech sector, there’s no such thing as a portfolio that guarantees success, and we make our investments with that in mind,” said Kim. “We believe in the community’s growth, and that has never changed.”

Known for his bets on platforms like Sky Mavis, the parent company of Axie Infinity, and The Sandbox, Kim is leveraging his experiences picking up good protocols in the gaming sector to back. While he takes responsibility for the turnout of the LUNA token per Hashe’s investments, Kim reiterated that the VC does not give investment advice seeing most projects it backs are in their experimental phases.

The LUNA crash has been attributed as one of the reasons for the collapse of top firms like Three Arrows Capital (3AC) and Voyager Digital.

Image source: Bloomberg

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Tagged : 3Ac / Hashed / Simon Seojoon Kim / SOUTHKOREA / Stablecoin / Terra

South Korean VC Firm Hashed Lost Up to $3.6B to LUNA Crash: CEO

by Blockchain NewsAugust 4, 2022

The LUNA crash has been attributed as one of the reasons for the collapse of top firms like Three Arrows Capital (3AC) and Voyager Digital.

Image source: Bloomberg

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Tagged : 3Ac / Hashed / Simon Seojoon Kim / SOUTHKOREA / Stablecoin / Terra

South Korea’s Crypto Tax Delayed Until Jan 2025

by Blockchain NewsJune 21, 2022

Crypto tax on digital assets in South Korea will be delayed by another two years, according to an announcement from the Ministry of Economy and Finance tax policy chief Ko Kwang-hyo.

Originally the 20% tax on crypto-asset gains was dated to kick off from January 1, 2023. However, following the announcement, the date has been moved to January 2025.

Ko’s announcement is part of President Yoon Suk-yeol’s new administrative-economic policy roadmap. Yoon had voiced out that a crypto tax should be introduced after preparing sufficient market infrastructure.

The roadmap reads that the upcoming “Digital Assets Basic Act” will focus on regulating the issuance and listing of cryptocurrencies.

January 1, 2023, was initially planned for 2022, but the date had to be moved due to heavy backlash from investors.

Investors argued that the crypto tax would heavily impact the nascent crypto industry. They said that the threshold was low, considering a tax plan for the stock market would kick in on capital gains above 50 million KRW (US$39,475.76).

Along with the crypto tax, a 20% tax on capital gains above 50 million Korean won (US$38,624.95) from stock trading has also been postponed to 2025. The original kickoff date was January 2023.

According to a recent report from Blockchain.News, Layer-1 blockchain protocol Solana, through its subsidiaries Solana Ventures and Solana Foundation, has launched a $100 million fund to back startups in the South Korea Web3.0 ecosystem.

As reported by TechCrunch, drawing on the exclusive interview with Johnny Lee, general manager of games at Solana Labs, the fund will focus exclusively on GameFi, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) in South Korea.

“A big portion of Korea’s gaming industry is moving into web3,” Lee said. “We want to be flexible; there’s a wide range of project sizes, team sizes, so some of [our investments] will be venture-sized checks.”

The investment into the South Korean Web3.0 ecosystem is a testament to the growing acclaim in the growth of developers introducing a series of Web3.0 initiatives in the country.

Despite attaining undue popularity as the host nation of Do Kwon’s collapsed Terra protocol, Solana has looked beyond the woes to throw its weight behind the industry’s growth.

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Tagged : Asia / Blockchain / Crypto / Solana / SOUTHKOREA / Tax

S. Korean Exchanges to be Held Accountable for LUNA Crash

by Blockchain NewsMay 24, 2022

The collapse of the Terra ecosystem including the protocol’s two flagship digital currencies, LUNA and UST may have more aftermaths than earlier imagined.

According to the latest reports from local media platform Newspim, the top cryptocurrency exchanges are now likely to be held accountable for failing to implement measures to protect investors from the crash.

In just about a week, UST depegged widely from the expected $1 price while the LUNA coin lost more than 99.99% of its value, charting the course of history as the worst collapse of a major cryptocurrency in recent times.

South Korean regulators and lawmakers are notably looking for who to hold accountable for this unfortunate event and exchanges including Bithumb, Upbit, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax are the best culprits. With a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, May 24th, a number of government officials, crypto industry giants, and members of the legislative arm will be present to assess the customer protection measures instituted before the crash by the trading platforms.

While it is not clear the exact yardstick and the modalities the inquiries will take, the latest reports confirm earlier stories that show the government has resorted to intensive scrutiny for digital assets trading platforms operating in the country.

With the collapse of the Terra protocol, regulators have levied founder and CEO Do Kwon with tax and fraud charges. Rather than brood over the ongoing mishaps, Kwon is reportedly in search of a functional and acceptable solution that can get the LUNA community back on its feet.

Nonetheless, expectations remain high as the entire ecosystem awaits the next course of action from the Korean watchdogs who have been absolutely concerned about the volatility of the industry and have dealt with exchanges with iron hands prior to this time.

With everyone anticipating a purported forking of the Terra network, investors who stacked LUNA after the price slumped will be carted off with gains as LUNA opened the week with gains as reported by Blockchain.News.

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Tagged : Crypto / DOKWON / Regulation / SOUTHKOREA / TERRAFORMLABS