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Terra/Luna creator Do Kwon pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiring to commit fraud and one charge of wire fraud on Tuesday, following an earlier not guilty plea and a very lengthy extradition process.You’re reading State of Crypto, a CoinDesk newsletter looking at the intersection of cryptocurrency and government. Click here to sign up for future editions.The narrativeTerraform Labs founder Do Kwon, who created the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin and its counterpart Luna (LUNA) token, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities, commodities or wire fraud and wire fraudWhy it mattersTerra and its related ecosystem blew up in spectacular fashion in 2022, with Luna falling from an all-time high price of nearly $120 to less than 10 cents over the course...

Every day, there seems to be a new blockchain for stablecoins.Or at least that’s how it felt this week, when USDC (USDC) issuer Circle announced Arc, its own settlement network, shortly after payments giant Stripe accidentally revealed Tempo, built in collaboration with Paradigm.They were the latest in a growing list. Startups Plasma and Stable both raised funds recently to develop dedicated chains for USDT (USDT), the $160 billion and largest stablecoin on the market.Tokenization players are piling in, too. Securitize is building Converge with Ethena, Ondo Finance announced its upcoming in-house chain earlier this year, and, just days ago, Dinari said it will soon launch an Avalanche-powered layer-1 network for clearing and settling tokenized stocks.Stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets are...

Jason Zhao, co-founder of intellectual property blockchain project Story Protocol, is stepping away from his full-time role after more than three years of building the platform.Zhao announced via a social media post that he will remain as a strategic adviser while turning his focus to a new AI initiative, Poseidon, which applies artificial intelligence to frontier industries such as science, biopharma, robotics, and space.“Language generation is just the initial wave of a cascade of abundant intelligence across fields… that, if successful, will constitute a new Industrial Revolution,” Zhao said in a post on X.Zhao launched Story Protocol in 2021 as a way to make intellectual property “programmable,” enabling rights holders to register and monetize content directly on-chain.The project has since...

Crypto exchange Gemini filed an updated registration statement for its initial public offering effort, sharing a few more details in its push to become a publicly traded firm. Goldman Sachs (GS), Citigroup (C), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Cantor acting as lead bookrunners on the IPO, Gemini said in a press release Friday.Evercore ISI, Mizuho, Truist Securities, Cohen & Company Capital Markets, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Needham & Company and Rosenblatt are also acting as bookrunners, the company said. Academy Securities and AmeriVet Securities are acting as co-managers.The S-1 published on Friday follows a confidential filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission back in June, and confirms "Gemini Space Station," co-founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, intends to sell...

Bitcoin Standard Treasury Co. (BSTR), a bitcoin (BTC) treasury vehicle led by cryptography pioneer Adam Back, sees itself as a company with a mission to accelerate real-world bitcoin adoption.But it might be setting out on another milestone: becoming one of the biggest corporate bitcoin holders. The company, which is preparing to go public on Nasdaq by merging with Cantor Equity Partners (CEPO), already has 30,021 BTC on its balance sheet, with plans to grow its stack beyond 50,000 coins.This will set it on the path of potentially overtaking MARA Holdings (MARA) as the second-largest corporate holder of BTC behind Strategy. MARA has more than 50,600 BTC, according to bitcointreasuries.net. Strategy has just under 629,000.Currently, MSTR, MARA, and BSTR collectively hold...