Memecoins make millionaires, Terraform and Do Kwon liable for fraud, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 31 – April 6

Top Stories This Week

Terraform Labs and Do Kwon found liable for fraud in SEC case

A jury found Terraform Labs and co-founder Do Kwon liable for defrauding investors in its civil case with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC trial started on March 25 without the attendance of Kwon, who remains in Montenegro while courts decide whether to grant his extradition. According to the verdict, jurors found Kwon and Terraform liable for six charges. They also determined that the platform acted “recklessly” in making false or misleading statements regarding the offer or sale of TerraUSD, Luna or wLUNA.

Trader turns $13K into $2M within 1 hour as memecoin frenzy continues

A crypto trader turned $13,000 into over $2 million, a gain of 15,700%, on April 3 by investing in the novel memecoin Donotfomoew (MOEW) minted on the Base blockchain. The cat-themed MOEW meme token was created earlier in the day by Bitget Wallet. Shortly after its debut on DEXs, however, MOEW surged in value and currently commands a market cap of $31 million. More than 8,000 addresses have received MOEW tokens during the ongoing airdrop, which is eligible for users holding enough BWB points.

Bitcoin 5% flash crash leads to $165M in leveraged crypto liquidations

A sudden 5% drawdown in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) on April 2 has seen traders with leveraged exposure to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rack up over $165 million in losses in less than two hours. Bitcoin plunged 5% from $69,450 to as low as $65,970 in less than 30 minutes, per TradingView data. According to data from Coinglass, Bitcoin’s sharp wick down saw more than $165 million in leveraged positions wiped out, with just over $50 million in Bitcoin longs and more than $40 million in Ether (ETH) longs accounting for the bulk of that figure. Roughly $6 million in long positions on Dogecoin and $4 million in Solana’s SOL were liquidated, trailing BTC and ETH.

Argentine government passes registration requirements for crypto firms

Argentina’s government has begun implementing requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges to operate legally in the country. In a March 25 announcement, Argentina’s Comisión Nacional de Valores said virtual asset service providers would operate in accordance with recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The implementation of the FATF requirements seems to have caused concerns about the future of digital assets in Argentina. Many users of Bitcoin payments app Strike reported that the app no longer allows locals to send fiat to bank accounts.

BlackRock updates Bitcoin ETF, adds 5 Wall Street firms

Global asset manager BlackRock updated its Bitcoin exchange-traded fund prospectus on April 5, adding five major Wall Street firms as new authorized participants. According to the document filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the new members include ABN AMRO Clearing, Citadel Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, Goldman Sachs, and UBS Securities. Among the previously authorized participants in the ETF are JPMorgan Securities, Jane Street Capital, Macquarie Capital, and Virtu Americas.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $67,570, Ether (ETH) at $3,323 and XRP at $0.58. The total market cap is at $2.53 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Core (CORE) at 112.81%, Ethena (ENA) at 42.57% and Pendle (PENDLE) at 30.34%. 

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Wormhole (W) at -32.66%, Conflux (CFX) at -25.42% and Akash Network (AKT) at -22.19%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“I simply dislike spending long periods helping people who willingly choose to gamble on vaporware meme coins vs actual victims.”

ZachXBT, pseudonymous on-chain sleuth

“I never thought that what I was doing was illegal. I’m haunted, every day, by what was lost. I never intended to hurt anyone or take anyone’s money.”

Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX

“We’re not believers in crypto.”

Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, chief investment officer at Goldman Sachs

“I think this [Bitcoin] is an insurance policy against rogue regimes or against just horrible fiscal and monetary policies.”

Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest

“People have told me that they desperately want to have substantive discussions with the [SEC] staff but worry that the inevitable result of such a meeting would be a call from enforcement.”

Hester Peirce, commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

“DeFi stands out as the only sector with the potential to leverage this narrative, providing a sustainable ecosystem for Bitcoin’s evolving use cases.”

Nash Lee, co-founder of MerlinSwap

Prediction of the week

Bitcoin’s 2028 halving price target is $435K, historical data suggests

Bitcoin price rallied approximately 650% since the last halving in 2020. If history repeats, Bitcoin could reach the $435,000 price level before the 2028 halving.

The 2024 Bitcoin halving will happen in less than three weeks. If historical chart patterns were to repeat, Bitcoin’s current $66,000 price would reach $434,280 per coin by the 2028 halving if it performs similarly to the current cycle.

Nonetheless, Bitcoin’s average price rallies fell by 45% each cycle to the current 658%. If this diminishing returns trend repeats, Bitcoin will deliver a 360% rally during the next cycle, resulting in a roughly $303,600 BTC price at the 2028 halving.

FUD of the Week

AaveDAO debates Dai collateral limit after $600M mint with eUSD backing

The Aave decentralized autonomous organization (AaveDAO) continued to debate limits to Dai (DAI) collateral on April 5, as risk management consultants Chaos Labs offered a new proposal to reduce Dai loan-to-value ratios by 12%. Previously, Aave Chan initiative founder Marc Zeller had argued for a 75% reduction. MakerDAO was criticized on the AaveDAO forums on April 2 after it minted 600 million DAI and deposited it in a vault with decentralized lending protocol Morpho. An April 1 proposal on the MakerDAO forums attempted to increase the vault’s minting limit to 1 billion DAI, potentially leading to an even greater supply of the stablecoin.

OneCoin’s legal boss gets 4 years jail for massive $4B crypto scam

The former head of legal and compliance for the multibillion-dollar OneCoin fraud scheme has been sentenced to four years in jail after admitting she helped launder millions of dollars. In addition to her four-year jail sentence, Irina Dilkinska was sentenced to one month of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $111 million as restitution. United States District Judge Edgardo Ramos reportedly denied Dilkinska’s request to avoid jail time and return home to care for young children in Bulgaria.

Philippines SEC accuses eToro of offering unregistered securities

The Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines has issued an advisory against online trading platform eToro, saying it is not authorized to sell or offer securities in the country. The bulletin added that anyone acting as salespeople, promoters, influencers, endorsers or agents for eToro in the Philippines could face penalties of up to $88,300 (5 million Philippines pesos) in fines or 21 years imprisonment for violating securities laws.

Top Magazine Pieces of the Week

Ethereum’s ERC-20 design flaws are a crypto scammer’s best friend

First introduced back in 2015, ERC-20 tokens are full of gaping security holes, with little chance of a fix any time soon.

AI will build the metaverse says Alien Worlds, Eric Wall vs Bittensor: AI Eye

AI didn’t kill the metaverse, it’s going to build it says Alien Worlds. Bittensor fires back at Eric Wall, medical/beer breakthroughs: AI Eye.

‘Web3 Gaming sucks’ says Ava, 2M Bitcoin Miner players make 13c: Web3 Gamer

The boss at Ava Labs’ gaming division says their cheeky marketing stunt was a hit at the Game Developers Conference. Plus, the Bitcoin Miner clicker game will have your thumb throbbing.

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Editorial Staff

Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.