FTX boss pleads guilty, Jump named as mystery firm that made $1.2bn from Terra depeg, ex-NBA star Pierce settles with SEC

SBF associate pleads guilty ahead of landmark criminal case

Another executive in Sam Bankman-Fried’s crumbled FTX empire is planning to plead guilty to US criminal charges.

FTX’s former head of engineering Nishad Singh is planning to plead guilty for his part in the firm’s 2022 collapse, Bloomberg reports. Singh, who is a close associate and former roommate of Bankman-Fried’s, played an integral part in FTX’s daily operations. Like the former FTX CEO, Singh was also a major political contributor. He has reportedly donated over $13 million to US Democrats since 2020.

Do Kwon extracted 10,000 Bitcoin from Terra/Luna

The US Securities and Exchange Commission slammed Do Kwon with fraud charges. The complaint accused Do Kwon and Terraform Labs of syphoning over 10,000 Bitcoin from the Terra/Luna project. The funds were moved to a “cold wallet,” which is disconnected from the internet and cannot be seized. Since the Terra/Luna crash in May last year, the wallet has sent several large fiat transactions to an unnamed Swiss bank amounting to over $100 million.

Despite the crash of the TerraUSD, Do Kwon is still working on staging a comeback with new digital assets.

Jump Crypto revealed to pull in $1.28bn in Terraform Labs deal

Jump Crypto is the trading firm that made $1.28 billion in profit acting as market maker for the Terraform Labs ecosystem, The Block reported.

The SEC complaint had made a reference to an unnamed trading firm that had an exclusive market-making arrangement with Terraform Labs. The firm has not been implicated in any wrongdoing.

Jump’s profit windfall came back in May, when a life-or-death TerraUSD depeg inspired a deal between Terra and Jump. The deal said Jump would deploy capital to restore the coin’s peg, in exchange for the right to buy discounted tokens. Jump declined to comment to The Block.

Paul Pierce settles with SEC for $1.4m after misleading retail investors

‘Any celebrity or other individual who promotes a crypto asset security must disclose the nature, source, and amount of compensation they received’

—  Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement

On Friday, former NBA star Paul Pierce was charged by the SEC for violating the agency’s disclosure rules. Pierce, who allegedly failed to disclose holding $244,000 in EMAX tokens, agreed to pay $1.4 million in a settlement. SEC Chair Gary Gensler spoke out against the infraction, putting celebrities on notice for making false or misleading statements. The SEC’s case mirrors the one made against Kim Kardashian in November 2022.

OpenSea drops fees as Blur grabs market share

Longtime dominant NFT marketplace OpenSea temporarily suspended sales fees on Friday. The move came only a day after rival marketplace Blur overtook OpenSea’s lead in daily market volume. Blur launched in October, but made serious gains in the market last week after airdropping its new BLUR token to NFT traders.

Blur consequently urged NFT creators to block OpenSea trades, citing OpenSea’s sales fees. OpenSea acknowledged the event, while maintaining the stance that other NFT marketplaces do not enforce creator earnings. OpenSea had previously blocked any NFT marketplaces that did not enforce creator royalty settings, which ensure creators get a royalty each time their NFT is traded. OpenSea has since lifted the block.

Platypus gets back $2.4m from Thursday’s hack — but $6.7m still stuck

Platypus protocol caught a lucky break on Friday as blockchain security firm BlockSec was able to recover at least $2.4 million of recently stolen funds. Platypus was hacked last week. While $9.1 million in USDC stablecoin was stolen, the attacker was revealed by BlockSec to have escaped with only $270,000. The remaining $6.7 million extracted is frozen in the hacker’s contract, with no transfer function available to retrieve them. It remains to be seen if anything can be done to recover the funds, let alone catch the culprit.

Russia and Japan launch CBDC pilots

Central Bank Digital Currencies are emerging more quickly than ever as both Japan and Russia intend to launch pilot programmes in April. Over 100 countries have so far initiated CBDC programmes of their own, though only about 28 are at or beyond pilot status. The Russian programme will allow retail purchases and small transfers only, while the Japanese programme will remain experimental and closed to consumers for the foreseeable future.

To those celebrating President’s Day in the US or Family Day in Canada, please stay safe & enjoy! To the rest of you Llamas, Happy Monday!