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Matrixport, the Singapore-based crypto trading and lending platform, has appointed a new head for its operations in the United States.

Mo Zhou, who was previously U.S. chief operating officer, is now heading up the company’s institutional-focused business lines in the country, with former U.S. CEO Anthony DeMartino stepping down and assuming an advisory role.

DeMartino is a trading veteran who was hired roughly a year ago from Coinbase, where he headed up Coinbase Risk Strategies. Prior to that, he held senior trading roles at UBS, Barclays and HSBC, most recently as head of LATAM rates trading at HSBC.

US plans intact

DeMartino was hired as part of Matrixport’s international growth plans in the U.S., according to a press release announcing the hire at the time. Matrixport said those plans remain intact — despite the apparent hostility of local regulators towards crypto businesses.

“Matrixport continues have a presence in the U.S. as part of its ongoing international growth strategy. Anthony has transitioned into an advisory role with US COO Mo Zhou supervising day-to-day operations,” said Ross Gan, Head of Public Relations and Brand for Matrixport.

DeMartino’s successor, Zhou, is a Harvard-trained lawyer who has spent ten years working in derivatives and M&A, according to Gan.

Matrixport is one of Asia’s bigger crypto businesses, with more than 290 employees worldwide, over $700 million in loans outstanding and $5 billion in monthly trading volume, according to its website. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The Seoul Southern District Court on Monday held the first preliminary hearing for Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin and seven other former Terraform employees, Korean media outlet News 1 reported. 

However, Shin, who was indicted in April for several charges including fraud, did not personally attend the hearing held in Seoul, Forkast reported.

South Korean prosecutors in April formally indicted Shin and nine others on multiple charges, including violations of capital markets law. That followed prosecutors’ months-long investigation into Terraform’s alleged wrongdoings that caused a dramatic implosion last year, wiping out more than $40 billion in investor wealth.

On Monday, Shin’s lawyers requested more trial preparation time, arguing that the case is not a simple criminal trial and requires more technical support, according to local news outlet Chosun Biz. The second trial preparation date is currently set for August 28.

‘Fictitious’ project

Terra’s algorithmic Terra-Luna stablecoin project was bound to fail and it was “fictitious,” the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office said in April. The prosecutors said the project caused “astronomical damage” for investors and took 463 billion won ($354.3 million) in profit.

The prosecutors also said in April that the authorities had frozen 247 billion won in assets. Shin’s lawyers rejected all the allegations at the time.

In May, the court dismissed the prosecutors’ second attempt for an arrest warrant for Shin, saying he wasn’t likely to destroy evidence or pose a flight risk.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told revelers at a May conference in Miami that he was not a bitcoin investor, but June financial documents revealed he has a bag, according to a report by CNBC. 

As per financial documents filed on June 30, the nephew of former president John F. Kennedy has between $100,001 and $250,000 worth of bitcoin held within a brokerage account. A representative for the presidential hopeful told CNBC that the investment was made after a pro-Bitcoin speech he delivered at Bitcoin Miami. The representative also said the investment does not represent a conflict of interest. 

As CNBC noted, Kennedy is a proponent of bitcoin, tweeting that “Bitcoin is not only a bulwark against totalitarianism and the manipulation of our money supply, it points the way toward a future in which government institutions are more transparent and more democratic.”

Kennedy’s campaign first told CNBC that the investment was made by his wife, former “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actress Cheryl Hines, but later confirmed that it belonged to the presidential candidate. 

Kennedy is part of a cadre of pro-crypto candidates that spans Republican Senator Ted Cruz and other presidential hopefuls like Florida governor Ron DeSantis. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund-fueled rally has stopped translating into increasing crypto exchange volumes, data from The Block Research shows. 

The seven day moving average for daily crypto exchange volumes has declined from a recent high of $19.4 billion on June 27 to $14.2 billion on July 8, according to The Block’s data dashboard. It was slightly over $15 billion on Friday. 

The price of bitcoin, meanwhile, is relatively flat over the same time period. The sluggish activity in spot exchange crypto trading could suggest that activity has moved into derivatives or off-exchange. Since BlackRock submitted its filing for a spot bitcoin ETF on June 15, the price of bitcoin has appreciated by more than 18%.

Meanwhile, CME’s bitcoin futures market has seen open interest surge, with the metric hitting $2.7 billion at the time of writing. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Cryptocurrency traders have fewer pairs to punt.

The number of spot pairs across major cryptocurrency exchanges has declined over the course of the year, according to data compiled by The Block Research. 

Monthly spot pairs on Binance, the largest exchange by global volume, declined from 1,420 in January to 1,380 in July, according to The Block’s data dashboard. Its sister company, BinanceUS, saw monthly spot pairs decline from 337 in June to 184 in July.

The crypto market has seen exchanges end support for trading pairs in the wake of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s suits against Coinbase and Binance earlier in June. The agency alleges that the exchanges traded unregistered securities. 

Monthly spot trading pairs supported by Coinbase declined from 557 in March to 524 in July. 

The number of spot pairs has also declined at Kraken, with the number of pairs declining from a high of 668 in February to 651 in July. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Stablecoin issuer Tether has frozen $2.5 million of USDT tied to a likely exploit of cross-chain router protocol Multichain. 

Multichain’s Fantom bridge was seemingly exploited for nearly $130 million after an attack that siphoned assets from a number of bridges. That amounted to nearly the entirety of the project’s wBTC, USDC, and USDT. Strangely, not all tokens in the bridge were taken and the assets weren’t sold (which typically happens during an attack).

On Friday, the Fantom Foundation said that Circle had frozen three addresses containing $60 million worth of USDC on Ethereum. 

Multichain said it was aware of the abnormal behavior and that it is investigating. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Binance, the largest global cryptocurrency exchange, faces a dwindling marketshare as executives from the firm depart, according to data from The Block’s data dashboard. 

Top executives at Binance resigned this week over CEO Changpeng Zhao’s handling of regulatory investigations into the company, Fortune reported, citing sources. Senior officials at the company including general counsel Han Ng, chief strategy officer Patrick Hillmann and SVP for compliance Steven Christie told Zhao they are leaving the company, Fortune said.

The exits come amid a dip in Binance’s marketshare among global exchanges. The firm saw its market share fall from 72% in January to just over 58% at present.

The figures represent the marketshare of spot trade volumes for cryptocurrency exchanges with no USD support or USD pairs contributing insignificant volumes.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

In its latest filing in an enforcement action against U.S. crypto giant Coinbase, lawyers for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission took an incredulous tone to the company’s argument that it did not know it violated securities laws.

The agency also pushed back on a claim that its approval of a 2021 registration statement related to Coinbase’s initial public offering meant that its enforcement case had no merit.

“Coinbase, a multi-billion-dollar entity advised by sophisticated legal counsel, argues it was unaware that its conduct risked violating the federal securities laws, and suggests that by approving Coinbase’s registration statement in 2021 the SEC confirmed the legality of Coinbase’s underlying business activities—at that time and for all time,” SEC lawyers wrote Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District Court of New York.

“In other words, Coinbase adopted the very legal framework as a basis for making listing decisions that it now claims has no applicability to its activities,” they continued.

The Howey test

In their initial enforcement suit filing against the company, the SEC alleged that Coinbase referenced the Howey test on its own website as what drove the company to determine whether to list an asset or not.

Friday’s filing came in response to an effort from Coinbase to have the case brought against it thrown out. Judge Polk Failla will review the arguments and make a determination in coming days. 

Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal called the SEC’s allegations “more of the same” in a series of tweets.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.