South Korea maintains single-bank policy for crypto exchanges

3AC Liquidators Pursue $1.3 Billion from FoundersLiquidators appointed for Three Arrows Capital (3AC), the failed Singaporean cryptocurrency hedge fund, are seeking to recover $1.3 billion from the fund’s co-founders.That’s according to an unidentified source cited by Bloomberg in a report published on Tuesday. The requested amount represents losses incurred by the founders during the months leading up to the firm’s collapse, according to a source familiar with the liquidators’ claims.Photo by Giorgio Trovato on UnsplashLiability allegationsDuring a meeting with the hedge fund’s creditors on Tuesday, the liquidators discussed the allegations against Three Arrows co-founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies. The co-founders are accused of causing the hedge fund to accumulate significant leverage between May and June 2022, despite already suffering substantial losses from ill-fated Luna tokens and other investments.The liquidators argue that the firm was insolvent at that time. Consequently, they have taken legal action against Zhu and Davies in a British Virgin Islands court to recover the losses on behalf of the fund’s creditors.Lawyers representing Zhu and Davies have not yet responded to requests for comment. However, in a Twitter post last June, Zhu mentioned that their attempts to cooperate with the liquidators were met with resistance.Crypto failure catalystThe failure of Three Arrows Capital coincided with a downturn in the digital currency market, impacting platforms that had exposure to the hedge fund, including crypto lenders BlockFi and Voyager Digital. These platforms subsequently filed for bankruptcy in the weeks following the liquidation of the hedge fund.The liquidators’ allegations against the co-founders represent an escalation of actions taken against Zhu and Davies, whom they have accused of non-cooperation during the investigation. The liquidators, who are partners at the consulting and advisory firm Teneo, were appointed by a British Virgin Islands court last year to recover funds for Three Arrows Capital’s creditors, who are collectively owed approximately $3.3 billion.Earlier this month, the liquidators urged a New York bankruptcy judge to impose a daily fine of $10,000 on Davies. They argue that this substantial fine is warranted because he has failed to respond to a subpoena requesting business records and other relevant information.While the liquidators do not currently know the whereabouts of Davies or Zhu, court documents from earlier this month referenced a New York Times article reporting that Davies had traveled to Bali after the collapse of Three Arrows Capital.Restraining orderIn May Zhu had secured a restraining order against BitMEX Co-Founder Arthur Hayes in a Singaporean court. Hayes believes that he is owed $6 million by the 3AC co-founders. Despite significant adverse publicity within the crypto space, the 3AC co-founders have proceeded to do business within the industry.They’ve established a crypto claims trading platform, OPNX, and alongside that Dubai-based business, they’ve also established a new venture capital fund, 3AC Ventures.The Dubai regulator, the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), has reprimanded OPNX and the business's founders for operating an unregistered digital assets business within the territory.

Indian Crypto Platform Mudrex Expands Operations in ItalyMudrex, the Indian cryptocurrency investment platform, has achieved a new milestone by successfully registering to operate in Italy.News of Mudrex’s move into the Italian market emerged via a press release published on Tuesday, as well as through an interview given recently by CEO and Co-Founder Edul Patel to CoinDesk. The expansion into Italy marks a rare international move for Indian crypto entities, which have faced challenges due to stringent taxation policies and the global crypto market’s fluctuations.Photo by Mathew Schwartz on UnsplashGlobal expansion planPatel unveiled Mudrex’s ambitious plan for global expansion, with half of the team actively working on international initiatives. The firm’s journey into the Italian market involved gaining approval for registration with Italy’s Organismo Agenti e Mediatori (OAM), a crucial step for crypto firms operating in the country. This registration, granted on September 1, was a strategic move that the company had been carefully planning. Patel explained:“We just wanted some time to pass after the approval before we made the news public.”Coin Sets and thematic indexesDespite having only one million registered users, Mudrex stands out as one of India’s largest crypto platforms. It offers a unique investment approach, focusing on index investing through Coin Sets, an innovative alternative to speculative trading. These Coin Sets encompass various categories, including small, mid, and large-cap assets, as well as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). Additionally, Mudrex provides thematic indexes that cover layer one and layer two solutions, NFTs, metaverse projects, and Dow trackers.“While India is our home and where we initially grew, our international customers have told us that investment products in their regions lack diversity,” Patel noted. “We believe that our product is unique and offers distinct advantages.”Mudrex was established in 2018 in Bengaluru while also establishing an office in San Francisco. Alongside Patel, its other Founders included Alankar Saxena as CTO, Rohit Goyal in the role of VP of DeFi, and Prince Arora as VP of Engineering.In 2021 it raised $2.5 million in funding with a view towards launching crypto mutual funds and ETFs. It followed that up in 2022 when it raised $6.5 million in a pre-series A funding round, supported by Y-Combinator, Arkham Ventures, and Tribe Capital.The firm participated in what has become a crypto platform trend over recent months by incorporating an AI chatbot into its platform in June to assist platform users when it comes to learning about crypto.Lithuanian trading licenseMudrex’s expansion into Italy was facilitated by the company’s prior fulfillment of EU operating requirements. The company had obtained a license in Lithuania less than a year ago, enabling it to navigate the EU regulatory landscape efficiently. During the six months of pursuing registration in Italy, Mudrex’s presence in the EU grew substantially, with user numbers increasing from approximately 5,000 to 17,000.With its foothold established in Italy, Mudrex now seeks to make its investment products accessible through various registered entities, including banking partner apps. Patel confirmed ongoing discussions with potential partners, further signaling the company’s commitment to expanding its global footprint.

Ethereum Co-Founder Highlights User-Friendly Crypto Wallets at Ethcon Korea 2023Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin delivered a keynote speech last Friday at Ethcon Korea 2023 — a hackathon and conference sponsored by Ethereum for the Korean Ethereum community in Seongsu-dong, Seoul — where he emphasized the importance of making crypto wallets user-friendly by striking a balance between user familiarity and decentralization.Photo by Nenad Novaković on UnsplashEnhancing security and convenienceParticipating in the event via video call, Buterin explained Ethereum’s ERC-4337 account abstraction upgrade during his speech, which was livestreamed on the Ethcon Korea YouTube channel. “The goal of account abstraction — a field that many wallets are currently working on developing — can be broadly categorized into two areas: security and convenience,” he said.Deployed on the Ethereum mainnet in March, the ERC-4337 is a standard that makes it possible to transact and create contracts in a single contract account, paving the way for more user-friendly crypto wallet designs. At its core are features such as easy account recovery, improved security, and customized services like auto-pay and bundled transactions. This provides a more convenient alternative to other crypto wallets, which mostly rely on private keys for account access, complicating setup and recovery procedures especially if a user loses their seed phrase.“Wallets must fundamentally be secure in a decentralized way, but there should also be ways to recover passwords as hardware wallets do,” Buterin stated. “However, many projects still rely on methods such as account recovery via email.”Simplifying transactionsAnother change introduced through the update is gas flexibility. Gas is a fundamental fee that users must pay to conduct transactions or execute a contract on Ethereum. Wallets backed by ERC-4337 can pay gas fees with any Ethereum utility tokens and more, including USD coins (USDC).From a convenience standpoint, Vitalik argued, it is very useful for first-time Ethereum users to be able to pay for gas with the USDC they already have. Sponsored transactions, where applications pay for fees, will be a great way to attract new users, especially for non-financial applications.He further elaborated that in order to transition from being user-friendly but centralized to more decentralized, a combination of a faster but precarious centralized approach with a slower but safer decentralized approach is required.He also stressed the importance of utilizing the various options available in modern technology concerning convenience, security, and decentralization, saying that it is essential to utilize these options effectively, continuously improve them, and take advantage of the benefits.Since 2019, Buterin has used Ethcon as a platform to announce Ethereum’s development roadmap and major technical updates.