Investigation into BNB and allegations against Terra 2.0. Main events of the crypto industry

The Bitcoin exchange rate has declined by 1,46% over the past seven days. The highest values were reached by the asset on June 6, when 1 BTC was trading at $31 689. The lowest values were also registered on June 6 - $29 311 for a single coin. As of June 10, 09:20 UTC, bitcoin exchange rate is $30 010 (according to Binance).

The value of the second most capitalized cryptocurrency, Ethereum, has declined 1,15% in the past seven days. The native token of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance (BNB) fell in price by 4,69%.

The total capitalization of the crypto market fell from $1,31 trillion to $1,29 trillion over the week, with bitcoin dominating 44,54%. Ethereum's share is 17,6%.

BNB Investigation

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an investigation into the cryptocurrency exchange Binance and its native token BNB. The regulator intends to find out whether the platform violated securities regulations during the 2017 initial public offering of BNB.

According to an investigation by Reuters journalists, more than $2,35 billion has been laundered through the platform over five years of Binance's operation. Hackers from the North Korean group Lazaurs, people involved in the darknet marketplace Hydra, as well as other fraudsters and scammers laundered money through the exchange.

Cointelegraph analyst Yashu Gola said that the rate of BNB may fall by 25-40% in 2022 amid the SEC investigation and the publication of Reuters.

Development of the situation with Terra 2.0

The head of Terraform Labs (TFL) Do Kwon was accused of fraudulently distributing LUNA 2.0 tokens. Twitter user FatMan said that TFL had 42 million tokens worth about $200 million in shadow wallets. At the same time, he referred to Terra's May 25 statement that the organization's wallets would be excluded from the airdrop at the launch of the new blockchain in order to put it entirely under community management.

The Twitter user found three wallets associated with TFL and two associated with Do Kwon. He added that there were probably other hidden addresses. FatMan also accused Kwon of intending to use the coins to manipulate the community.

Binance had previously initiated its own internal investigation into FatMan's allegations of manipulation of Terra tokenomics (LUNA) and insider trading by TFL.

The SEC also launched an investigation into Kwon and his company for trading unregistered securities through the Mirror protocol, created on the Terra blockchain.

The regulator notes that users can trade tokenized shares of major US companies, such as Apple and Amazon, through the Mirror Protocol. The SEC explained that Kwon promoted the platform to US consumers and investors, and TFL hired US lawyers to enter into agreements with local organizations to trade their shares.

Other industry news

PayPal added the ability to withdraw digital assets to external addresses, including hardware wallets and cryptocurrency exchanges. Initially available only to some US users, the feature will be made available to a wider range of US customers in the coming weeks.

Forbes magazine conducted a survey of 65 of the richest people in the world, which showed that almost 30% of billionaires directly or indirectly invest in cryptocurrencies. This figure is higher than among people with less wealth. Thus, according to NBC News in March, only 20% of Americans invested in the field of digital assets.

The CEO of investment firm Galaxy Digital, Mike Novogratz, believes that two-thirds of cryptocurrency hedge funds will go bankrupt because of the current downturn in the market. In his opinion, the decline in digital assets is caused by the policy of the US Federal Reserve System (Fed).

The situation with cryptocurrencies in Russia

In 2021, the number of court cases related to digital assets in Russia increased by 40%. A total of 954 criminal cases, 365 civil cases, 141 bankruptcy cases and 71 administrative cases were initiated. Most of the cryptocurrencies are related to drug trafficking - 738, followed by money laundering and gambling.

The Ministry of Energy said that the share of mining in the total energy consumption of the country is 0,64% and the power system has enough margin of safety to serve all types of consumers. Also, representatives of the ministry believe that participants of cryptocurrency mining should not consume energy at a preferential tariff.