Our weekly roundup of East Asia news selects the most important developments in the industry.
Chinese Crypto Billionaire Sued by SEC
On March 22, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, Announced charges against Chinese blockchain personality and billionaire Sun Yuchen, better known as Justin Sun, and three of his wholly owned companies, Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd., and Rainberry Inc. (formerly known as BitTorrent).
The complaint alleges that Sun and his companies "fraudulently" manipulated the secondary market for Tron (TRX) tokens through "extensive laundering trades," citing more than 600,000 such exchanges and paying celebrities to promote TRX tokens and BitTorrent (BTT) without disclosure. .
Multiple prominent American celebrities including Lindsay Lohan and Jake Paul have been named defendants for their alleged roles in promoting TRX and BTT without proper disclosure. Some have already settled with the SEC. In addition, the SEC alleges that the airdrop and reward programs used to promote TRX and BTT were unregistered investments. Gary Gensler, Chairman of the SEC, commented:
โAs alleged, Sun and his companies not only targeted US investors in their unregistered offers and sales, generating millions in illegal revenue at the investors' expense, but also coordinated the wash trade on an unregistered trading platform. to create the deceptive appearance of active trading. on TRXโ.
Justin Sun is an active figure in the crypto industry who rose to fame through Tron's $70 million initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017. The ICO reportedly took place one day before the Chinese government announcement of a blanket ban on all ICOs within the country. Sun, who reportedly left Beijing soon after and moved to San Francisco, used his newfound wealth from the successful Tron ICO to acquire peer-to-peer download platform BitTorrent.
Sunreportedlylaid off while in the US and portraying himself as an honest businessman fleeing the specters of communism. However, US authorities have heard this kind of rhetoric before and on March 15, the US Department of Justice announced that it had arrested Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui for his role in an alleged crypto and stock fraud scheme $1 billion. Just days before his arrest, Guohe captivated his viewersthe importance of his crypto exchange, blockchain technology, and the tokens he had created in the fight against communism.
Interest from US authorities may have been behind Sun's decision to move out of the US in 2020 to the sunny Caribbean island of Grenada. Since then he has become the country's ambassador to the World Trade Organization. In addition to foreign affairs duties and the bestowal of the elegant title "His Excellency of Him," the position grants Sun a diplomatic passport that, in theory, provides immunity from prosecution.
Despite the controversies, Sun seems to be doing pretty well in her new home. Last November, Sun reportedly acquired 100% of the co-founders' stakes in cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global despite claiming publicly that he is just a humble "advisor" in Huobi's day-to-day affairs.
In January, Asia Express reported that the benefits of many Huobi employees were supposedly fired through direct orders from Sun. In other areas, the Binance cryptocurrency exchange has also limited its use of Tron Tether (TRC-20 USDT) after a regulatory backlash on its own stablecoin Binance USD.
Do Kwon's bad bet in Casino Royale
If Do Kwon has something in common with James Bond in the 2006 hit movieRoyal Casino, is that they both found (or currently find) their stay in the beautiful coastal nation of Montenegro to be deeply unpleasant. On March 23, Filip Adzic, Minister of the Interior of Montenegro, Announced that a South Korean national suspected of being the co-founder of Terraform Labs, wanted fugitive Do Kwon, had been arrested at Podgorica airport for forged documents.
Shortly after the announcement, South Korean authorities confirmed that the person in custody is, in fact, Do Kwon based on a positive match of name, date of birth, nationality, and photographic evidence. Police say they are waiting for a fingerprint check from the Montenegrin authorities to definitively identify the arrested individual.
Do Kwon is currently wanted by Interpol, as well as authorities in South Korea, Singapore and the United States, for his role in the collapse of the $40 Billion Terra Luna Ecosystem in May 2022. Last October, South Korean prosecutors revoked the passport of Kwon, who was allegedly hiding in Serbia at the time.
Serbia shares borders with Montenegro, a Balkan country that became independent in 2006 and has signed few extradition agreements with other nations as a result. However, an extradition agreement simply facilitates the process and is not a requirement for extradition to occur. Interestingly, South Korea does not have an embassy in Montenegro and vice versa.
Kwon had not been seen since late 2022 until the news of his arrest. If anything, the blockchain executive has proven to be a mediocre player. Apart from what appears to be a failed attempt to evade arrest and Attempts to duplicate the ecosystem of Terra Luna (LUNC), Kwon recently, and finally, lost an $11 million bet that the LUNC price will be above $90 per token by mid-March 2023. The LUNC price is $0.0001259 at press time.
Maplestory moves to GameFi
On a happier note, South Korean gaming giant Nexon Announced on March 22 that it had selected the Ethereum layer-two scaling solution Polygon (MATIC) to power the blockchain ecosystem for the multiplayer 2-D fantasy RPG Maplestory.
According to Nexon, a Polygon supergrid, created by Polygon Labs, will be implemented within Maplestory to allow players to earn and collect in-game items such as non-fungible tokens. Ryan Wyatt, president of Polygon Labs, said:
โNexon, by selecting Polygon Supernets to power its global success MapleStory Universe, sends a strong message to the entire gaming industry about the future of blockchain gaming.โ
Last January, Wyatt announced his resignation as head of games at Youtube and joined Polygon Studios as its new CEO.
Created in 2003, MapleStory is immensely popular in the Asia-Pacific region and has surpassed 180 million registered players. In-game items are currently purchased with Nexon's NX currency. The company reported $2.6 billion in revenue in 2022 and has developed more than 50 games since its inception.
