Terraform Labs Co-Founder Daniel Shin Denies Wrongdoing in LUNA Collapse

Korea to Ban Virtual Asset Deposit Services from Next JulyDuring a recent criminal law seminar held at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, Park Min-woo, Director of the Capital Markets Bureau at the South Korean Financial Services Commission (FSC), underscored that starting next year, virtual asset service providers (VASPs) will no longer be permitted to offer deposit and management services for virtual assets. That’s according to a report by local crypto news outlet Digital Asset.This is seen as a response to the suspension of virtual asset deposits and withdrawals carried out by virtual asset yield platforms Haru Invest and Delio a few months ago.Photo by Mathew Schwartz on UnsplashLegal backgroundDirector Park referred to Article 7, Paragraph 2 of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, clarifying that the intention behind this provision is to ensure that VASPs have the ability to fulfill asset withdrawal requests, even in the scenario where all their customers make such requests. This Act is scheduled to go into effect in July of next year, and Article 7 prohibits VASPs from entrusting customer assets to third parties.Deposit service providers receive cryptocurrency deposits and then distribute the resulting yields to their customers. In a bull market, these entities can manage yields on their own. However, in a flat or bear market, these asset managers may face challenges in paying yields unless they can generate profits by handing over customer assets to external custodians.Signs of giving upIn fact, centralized finance (CeFi) company HeyBit made an announcement last month, stating that it will discontinue its virtual asset deposit service starting from October 2. They cited this specific provision as the reason for their decision.Fraud chargesBoth Haru and Delio have been indicted by the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office on fraud charges.As an unregistered VASP, Haru suspended its deposit and withdrawal services on multiple occasions in June, causing substantial financial losses to numerous investors. This suspension was triggered by significant losses incurred at B&S Holdings, another unregistered entity to which Haru had entrusted virtual assets.Similarly, Delio, although registered, entrusted a considerable amount of virtual assets to Haru and Traum Info Tech but was unable to recover them.

Korean cryptocurrency exchange FOBLGATE (FOBL) last Thursday showcased its ongoing project on real estate-based security tokens at Momo Network’s second security token offering (STO) and Web3 networking party, the game media outlet Kyunghyang Games reported. Momo Networks is the company behind Momoboard, an all-in-one app that combines bulletin board, messaging and cloud storage features. The event served as an opportunity for FOBL to inform participants about the current stage of the exchange’s project and where it is headed. Initially introduced in November last year, the project is a collaboration between FOBL and prop fintech company Plus Platform, an asset management and trading platform headquartered in New York, U.S. Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on UnsplashReal estate-based security token projectAt the event, participants are anticipated to discuss the future of the security token market, which is currently focused on conventional real-world assets (RWAs). This new security token project is expected to innovate traditional real estate investments, offering benefits such as high liquidity, low transaction fees and easy access to investors, explained FOBL. The crypto company aims to solidify its position in the crypto market while raising public awareness of real estate security tokens. Future of virtual assetsAhn Hyun-jun, CEO of FOBL, said he plans to make his company an innovator in virtual asset development and create various types of crypto assets that extend beyond real estate-based security tokens.   Furthermore, a FOBL spokesperson stated that this networking party will serve as a forum for Web3 and STO experts to explore new technologies and innovative investment strategies, providing valuable insights for investors and market participants. 

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) last Tuesday, prompting South Korean investors to flock to cryptocurrency exchanges to make transactions. However, the revenues recorded by these exchanges showed a mixed performance in response to this development due to their differing transaction fee policies, according to local news outlet DealSite on Monday.Photo by Maxim Hopman on UnsplashTrading volumes surge and retreatAccording to crypto analytics platform CoinGecko, as of 9 a.m. on Jan. 12 (KST), Upbit's trading volume on Dec. 11 and 12 was approximately $5.1 billion and $6.1 billion, respectively, for a total of about $11 billion. During the same period, Bithumb recorded $2.6 billion and $2.4 billion, respectively, totaling nearly $5 billion. However, as of this writing at 11 a.m. on Jan. 15, Upbit’s 24-hour trading volume has dropped back down to $2.1 billion and Bithumb to $874 million. "After the SEC's approval, crypto exchanges were simultaneously flooded with transactions," an anonymous industry employee commented. "Bitcoin and Ethereum were mainly traded." Fee divergenceAlthough the ETF approval caused a general uptick in trading volumes, the amount of revenue that the exchanges earned from transaction fees varied. Upbit charges a fee of 0.05% for both buying and selling crypto, meaning the exchange made an estimated KRW 14.8 billion in revenue from the fees from Dec. 11 to 12. Bithumb, on the other hand, hasn't earned any revenue from trading fees since its zero-fee policy was implemented in October last year.  Bithumb had previously charged 0.25% for transactions and 0.04% with coupons. By implementing the former, the exchange lost about KRW 15.8 billion ($12 million) in revenue, and with the latter, it lost about KRW 2.5 billion. For crypto investors, Bithumb's zero-fee policy has made investing more accessible, but the exchange is unlikely to reap its own rewards. Significant investor interestMoreover, with trading for the spot bitcoin ETF beginning on the 11th, the influx of funds is expected to boost trading. "All told there were 700,000 individual trades today in and out of the 11 spot ETFs," Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas told X (formerly Twitter). "For context, that is double the number of trades for $QQQ." $QQQ refers to the Invesco QQQ ETF. According to an image that accompanied Balchunas’ post, the total trading volume across all 11 spot ETFs was reportedly $4.3 billion. Grayscale's GBTC had the highest volume at $2.1 billion, followed by BlackRock’s IBIT at $1 billion and Fidelity’s FBTC at $673 million.