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A class action lawsuit filed on Friday accuses Do Kwon, Terraform Labs (TFL) and others of selling unregistered securities and making false statements about the stability of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin and related token luna to induce investors to purchase them, according to the filing documents.

Other defendants named in the case include Jump Crypto, Jump Trading, Republic Capital, Republic Maximal, Tribe Capital, DeFinance Capital (This appears to be a typo, as there is no company of that name associated with TFL.), DeFinance Technologies (perhaps another typo), GSR Markets, Three Arrows Capital and Nicholas Platias.

Even though the Terra tokens bear all the hallmarks of being investment contracts and, thus, “securities under the Howey test,” the lawsuit says, “no registration statements have been filed with the SEC.”

The lawsuit also claims that members of the Luna Foundation Guard, a nonprofit formed to defend the Terra tokens against severe market volatility, acted on behalf of TFL to promote the stability of UST and misled investors into believing that an available reserve pool would be sufficient to defend against a “proverbial run on the bank by UST/LUNA investors.”

Between May 6 and May 9, however, structural infirmities specific to the Terra ecosystem “exposed the truth regarding the UST/LUNA pair,” and within a week the “prices of UST and LUNA collapsed by about 91% and 99.7%, respectively,” the lawsuit claims.

The suit seeks restitution of the monetary value of the purchase price of the Terra tokens and attorney fees for the plaintiff and all others similarly situated.

Messages sent to TFL representatives were not returned by the time of publication.

© 2022 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.

Business firms are opening up hundreds of job vacancies pertaining to blockchain and cryptocurrency amid mass layoff in the crypto space in recent months.

Large and small companies have posted over 500 crypto-related jobs in the last seven days, according to a new analysis from cryptojobslist.com. The website looked at the job listings posted on jobs board Indeed to identify open positions in the crypto industry.

Deloitte, the multinational professional services provider based in London, advertised the most positions with 144 new listings in the past seven days. The UK company is followed by Block Inc., a financial tech company founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, which posted 59 positions. Most of the jobs advertised are remote positions.

Cryptojobslist.com also highlighted that there were 569 crypto-related jobs posted on Indeed last week, compared to 388 new jobs listed in the previous week. “[The new job listings] show that prolific companies are seeing the long-term value of cryptocurrency,” a spokesperson from Cryptojobslist.com said in the statement.

On Wednesday, Binance exchange CEO Changpeng Zhao announced on Twitter that the company is hiring for 2,000 open positions. “It was not easy saying no to Super Bowl ads, stadium naming rights, large sponsor deals a few months ago, but we did,” Zhao said in the tweet.

Numerous firms have publicly laid off more than 1,500 people since earlier this spring when the crypto market entered an extended drawdown. Publicly traded crypto exchange Coinbase cut the most employees, announcing on June 14 a layoff of around 1,100 people. 

© 2022 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 will switch from its current payments partner in Brazil to provide a better solution for customers, it said in a blog post on Friday.

It will replace Capitual with a local payment provider to be announced soon, make the transition in coming weeks and take steps to ensure users are not adversely affected.

For deposits and withdrawals, users can transact via Binance’s P2P system, and for direct purchase of cryptocurrencies, Pix and bank transfers are available through an alternative provider, it said. For withdrawals, there is also a “sell to card” option available for Visa, and if in doubt, users can access Binance support or chat.

Still, CoinDesk reported today that Binance had suspended deposits and withdrawals in Brazilian reals via Pix. Binance said on the platform that deposits via Pix were experiencing instability because of a policy change made by the central bank, without providing further details, according to the report.

Binance is in the process of acquiring local brokerage company Sim;paul, which is already authorized by the central bank and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

© 2022 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.

Crypto brokerage Voyager Digital signed a non-binding term sheet with Alameda Research for a revolving line of credit providing access to further capital, in consideration of current market conditions, it said in a news release on Friday.

The proceeds are to be used to safeguard customer assets in light of current market volatility and only if such use is needed, it said.

The first part is a cash/USDC-based credit facility of $200 million, while a second is for 15,000 in Bitcoin (BTC).

The credit facilities expire on December 31, 2024, with an annual interest rate of 5% payable on maturity.

In addition to the funds available under the credit facilities, Voyager has more than $200 million on its balance sheet.

Voyager and Alameda are working on documentation, which is expected to be completed in coming days.

© 2022 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.

Scammers using LinkedIn for crypto investment schemes are a “significant threat,” Sean Ragan, FBI special agent in charge of the San Francisco and Sacramento, California, field offices told CNBC in an interview.

Ragan said the FBI has seen an increase in crypto fraud and has active investigations but could not comment about open cases.

Scammers create fake profiles and message LinkedIn users, gain their trust over time and eventually offer to help them make money through fraudulent crypto investments that drain their accounts, according to the report.

LinkedIn told CNBC that while there has been an uptick of fraud on its platform, “We work with peer companies and government agencies from across the world with the goal of keeping LinkedIn members safe from bad actors. If a member encounters or is the victim of a scam we ask that they report it to us and to local law enforcement.”

LinkedIn said it removed 32 million fake accounts in 2021 and its automated defenses caught 99.1% of spam and scams, a total of 70.8 million, in that same time period, according to the report.

The Global Anti-Scam Organization has traced most of the perpetrators to Southeast Asia, CNBC said.

© 2022 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.

Bitcoin fell below $20,000 amid a broader market downturn.

As of press time, bitcoin was trading hands at $19,217 on Coinbase, according to TradingView. Bitcoin reached a low of $19,052 before recovering somewhat.

Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network and the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, also saw its price fall early Saturday, hitting a low of $988. ETH is currently trading at $997.

The market developments come amid multiple crises in the crypto market. Celsius, a major crypto lender, halted withdrawals and transfers Sunday, and has since remained quiet about future steps. 

Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital is facing insolvency after seeing its positions liquidated by multiple counterparties in the market. 

© 2022 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 CEO of crypto trade association ADAM Michelle Bond announced Thursday she is running for a US House seat representing New York’s 1st district.

The native Long Islander has her sights set on the GOP ticket for that district, where Republican incumbent Lee Zeldin has left a clear path open by opting to run for governor instead.

Bond has positioned herself as a pro-life, pro-Trump businesswoman, standing against “career politicians” and the current administration’s economic policies, which she blames for high inflation levels and gas prices.

Prior to helming ADAM (which stands for Association for Digital Asset Markets), Bond was the global head of policy and regulatory affairs at two fintech companies.

Bond is no stranger to Capitol Hill, having also served as international counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and as a subject matter expert on the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs — specifically for the Dodd-Frank Act, which tightened up regulation around the swaps market in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

At ADAM, Bond has tried to carry out the main mission of the organization, which is to encourage market integrity by setting a code of conduct for companies to follow. In other words, to promote self-regulation in crypto.

Per the Republican candidate, the group is often cited by regulators and legislators alike.

More recently, the group engaged with Senator Cynthia Lummis, who has recently introduced a long-awaited bill (the Responsible Financial Innovation Act) clarifying a number of parameters regarding crypto regulation, including how much oversight different federal agencies should have. Notably, it states that “digital assets that meet the definition of a commodity, such as bitcoin or ether,” fall under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

As the crypto industry deals with the fallout from events like the Terra crash and Celsius’ freeze on all transfers, Bond commented on possible regulatory implications that might arise from these events.

“I think stablecoins are sort of the low-hanging fruit. I expect that there is going to be a lot of policy-making that happens,” she said. “Disclosure is really like the key thing that people have been pointing to(…) Disclosure is not sporadic tweets.”

To be clear, Bond said crypto is not the priority on her agenda as it pertains to her ambitions to take a seat in Congress. Instead, she is focused on representing what she believes are the interests of the people from her district (Suffolk), which skew mainly toward the economy.

“My job in Congress would be very different actually from the job I have now. I would use my experience from the business world to inform my decisions,” she said. “(Crypto is) obviously a hot policy area. I think we’re gonna see continued focus from Capitol Hill on that debate,” she said.

© 2022 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.

Quick Take

• This piece summarizes key themes that have influenced the NFT market in the first half of 2022
• After reaching an all-time high of $16.6B in January, NFT trading volumes have since consistently declined
• Airdrops have emerged as an essential tool to capture NFT traders’ attention, while free mints have cast their spell on the space in the face of a major market downturn
• NFT projects are enacting increasingly diverging strategies in terms of IP rights that gravitate towards both extreme ends of the spectrum
• NFT financialization protocols have sprung up but still lack sufficient base liquidity

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It has been a tough week for crypto and as it draws to a close, a mix of bitcoin miners are seeing their stocks rise and fall in the markets. 

On the positive side, Cipher Mining’s stock rose by 27.27%, followed by Bit Digital (16.39%) and TeraWulf (10.05%).

Mawson Infrastructure Group’s stock went down by 17.24%, while Argo’s declined by 8.07%  on Nasdaq and 6.25% on the London Stock Exchange.

Here’s how crypto mining companies performed on Friday, June 17:

© 2022 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 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is gearing up to publish a report on how member nations are implementing its travel rule and emerging views on decentralized finance (DeFi). 

The global anti-money laundering watchdog published the conclusion of four days of hybrid meetings today. The body released its finalized crypto guidance in October of 2021, which included standards for virtual assets and virtual asset service providers (VASPs), essentially exchanges. The so-called travel rule would require businesses to collect and transmit originator and beneficiary information on both parties in a transaction.

Since the passage of the standard last year, countries have been working to implement the standard and crypto firms have raced to present solutions. The FATF meets three times each year, during which it assesses risks, discusses potential guidance and tracks the progress of member nations’ implementation of existing guidance. 

At this most recent set of meetings, the FATF discussed a “targeted update” on the implementation of VASP standards, preparing a report that focuses on travel rule implementation. It expects to publish the report at the end of June. In its summary, the FATF said that the report will highlight the progress made, but also point out that not all member-countries have rolled out regulations for travel rule compliance.

“The slow introduction of regulations in many countries leaves a significant gap that means the VASP sector is vulnerable for criminal misuse,” said the summary. “The report stresses the urgent need for jurisdictions to implement and enforce the travel rule. “

It will also provide an update on the emerging risks and market developments it’s monitoring in the crypto industry. In its summary, it said DeFi, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and unhosted wallets will be among those topics. 

© 2022 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.