Web3 on Fire: Is this a bullrun in sight?

GM, frens! Ambire here with out weekly newsletter, today we'll be talking about Do Kwon, who finally got caught; Hong Kong market opening up, EVE Online making a leap to Web3, SEC charging Justin Sun and a bunch of big celebrities over crypto, a $1M bet on crypto price and a survey by Kaspersky, which established that 1/3 of all crypto owners had their funds stolen at some point.

Let's get down to it:

Do Kwon gets "De Tained"

After months of hunting for Do Kwon, Montenegro's Minister of Interior, Filip Adzic, confirmed the arrest of Do Kwon yesterday. Montenegro police believe they have apprehended the correct person and are now in the process of verifying Do Kwon's identity.

Do Kwon was believed to be hiding in Serbia after the collapse of Terraform Labs, a Singapore-based company he co-founded and served as CEO. The company was plagued with allegations of financial mismanagement and fraud, which led to its eventual downfall. South Korean officials even travelled to Serbia to investigate the case and catch Do Kwon.

Now that he has been apprehended, hopefully the truth will be uncovered and those affected by Terra's collapse can find justice.

HK market boom - a new hype is emerging

Hong Kong is expecting a new wave of hype as the market for virtual asset service providers is about to open up with its new regulations from June 2023. According to Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christian Hui, over 80 foreign and Mainland China companies have already expressed their interest in establishing a Web3 company in Hong Kong - making it clear that many business owners are eager to jump on board the crypto train.

Hong Kong is also stashing away an impressive HK$50 million (US$6.4 million) in its annual budget to ensure the growth of this new and exciting Web3 industry. A new hype is on the horizon, and with its ideal environment of high-level security and a favorable tax structure - it’s no wonder why business owners are so eager to get in on the action.

EVE Online raised $40m for a blockchain game

EVE Online, an MMORPG from the old days of the Internet, is making a move to cross over to the next generation of gaming technology with a new Web3 game. Developer CCP Games has just announced that it has raised $40 million in financing to develop a new AAA title set within the EVE universe.

The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, and also included BITKRAFT, Nexon, Kingsway Capital and HASHED, among other investors. This move further demonstrates CCP’s commitment to developing new titles within the EVE universe and expanding the experience for its highly-engaged faithful fan base.

And when they are talking about the fan base, they actually mean millions of users that have been playing EVE Online throughout the years. According to the press release, their upcoming title will focus on “persistence, composability and truly open third-party development” to create a new relationship between virtual worlds and players.

In any case, this is monumental and may convince some users to make the leap towards Web3 gaming.

SEC charged Justin Sun and a number of celebrities

SEC has recently announced that it has charged Justin Sun, a prominent crypto entrepreneur, and his three companies- Tron Foundation, BitTorrent, and Rainberry Inc., for allegedly conducting an unregistered sale of securities. The SEC also charged a number of celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Soulja Boy, Austin Mahone, Kendra Lust, Lil Yachty, Ne-Yo and Akon. According to the SEC, these celebrities used their social media accounts to tout and promote the sale of the securities without informing investors that they were being paid for doing so.

The SEC is alleging that Justin Sun and his companies violated the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 by issuing tokens without registering them with the SEC, failing to provide investors with proper disclosure documents for their investments, and failing to comply with federal anti-fraud laws. The agency further alleges that Sun made false statements about the tokens and their potential returns in order to entice potential investors. He supposedly also wash traded TRX between two crypto assets trading platforms accounts he controlled, with between $4 million and $7 million TRX wash traded daily.

Also according to SEC, all celebrities except Soulja Boy and Austin Mahone agreed to settle the charges by paying more than $4m in disgorgement, interest, and penalties after the charges were filed.

The SEC’s action is just the latest example of the US government's latest efforts to increase pressure on crypto, and while no one enjoys celebrities promoting scammy crypto projects, this could open up the door for further enforcement of crypto regulations in the US.

Bullrun in sight? Some are willing to bet $1M on it

Balaji Srinivasan, a former CTO of Coinbase is claiming that the US economy is about to experience hyperinflation and that Bitcoin will reach $1 million in the next 90 days.

Apparently, Mr. Srinivasan is so confident that he is also offering to pay $1 million in BTC to the best 1,000 tweets forecasting an imminent financial crisis. "$1000 per tweet, for the best 1000. Reply with your charts, graphs, stats, memes! Bring attention to what is happening! Because the central bank, the banks, and the bank regulators have bankrupted all of us. Let's go!" Srinivasan tweeted.

Coming from a former CTO of a big crypto player, this sounds extremely silly. Not just because it's highly unlikely for BTC to reach $1 million any time soon, but also because it requires a lot more than 1000 tweets to make it happen. But we certainly can appreciate the enthusiasm.

Are you feeling bullish? Now you can win $200 simply for testing Ambire's newest exchange integration

Research corner: Kaspersky survey - one third of crypto owners had their funds stolen

Kaspersky, an old PC antivirus software company, published a report which examined the "dangers" of crypto, an a look at the users, including investors encountering scams, fraudulent websites, identity theft, and theft of crypto assets. The survey was conducted with 2,000 American adults between October 20 and October 24, 2022.

The report showed that one-third of the respondents who own crypto assets have had their funds stolen. It also found that only a third of crypto owners take the necessary steps to protect their digital holdings, such as being careful with their seed phrases, using two-factor authentication and strong passwords.

The stolen amounts ranged from less than $100 to over a million dollars. The most common range was between $1,001 and $10,000 with 15% of respondents revealing losses in the higher range of between $100,000 and $1 million.

As always, it's important to be vigilant and take the necessary steps to safeguard your crypto. Be sure you are using strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and never tell anyone your seed phrase.

The fun page: our weekly meme collection

That's all for now, frens.

We'll see you next week. And remember, the market conditions are temporary, but our commitment to building a better DeFi is here to stay. Thanks for joining us and we look forward to seeing you back next week. Cheers!

Yours, The 🔥 Team

Brought to you by Ambire: The Web3 Wallet That Speaks Human