SEC, South Korea & Poland: Crypto Drama Unfolds! 💸🔥

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In this week’s edition of the weekly recap, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed settlement agreements for Sam Bankman-Fried’s former associates whose testimony secured his conviction. 🎯✨

Summary

  • SEC proposed settlements for former FTX executives who testified against Sam Bankman-Fried. 🧠💥
  • South Korean police busted a fake currency ring targeting crypto traders in in-person deals. 🕵️♂️💸
  • Poland’s parliament revived comprehensive crypto legislation after an earlier rejection. 🇵🇱⚖️

Additionally, law enforcement in South Korea dismantled a criminal operation using counterfeit currency to defraud cryptocurrency traders and Poland’s parliament revived comprehensive industry legislation. 🚨🌐

SEC offers settlements to FTX cooperating witnesses 🧩

  • The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed Friday settlement agreements for key members of Sam Bankman-Fried’s inner circle whose testimony proved critical during his criminal trial proceedings. 🧑‍⚖️🔥
  • These proposed resolutions address regulatory charges against individuals who cooperated with prosecutors in building the case against the former FTX CEO. 🧠🤝

South Korean police dismantle counterfeit currency scheme 🕵️♀️

  • Authorities in South Chungcheong province are prosecuting a criminal group that manufactured fake Korean won bills to defraud cryptocurrency traders during in-person exchanges. 📤📉
  • Police discovered 9,188 counterfeit 50,000-won notes valued at approximately 459.4 million won ($330,000) in the suspects’ possession last year according to Chosun Ilbo reporting. 🧾💰

Polish parliament advances cryptocurrency regulation 🇵🇱💼

  • The Sejm passed Thursday comprehensive crypto industry legislation by 241-vote approval. 🗳️📈
  • The Crypto-Asset Market Act remains unchanged from the version rejected earlier this month according to the Sejm’s press office confirmation. 📢🔁

Coinbase challenges state prediction market restrictions 🏦

  • The cryptocurrency exchange filed federal lawsuits in Connecticut, Michigan, and Illinois challenging state attempts to prohibit prediction markets under gaming regulations. 🏛️⚖️
  • Legal complaints seek declaratory and injunctive relief arguing that prediction markets fall exclusively under Commodity Futures Trading Commission jurisdiction rather than state gaming boards. 📈⚖️

Ethereum developers name 2026 upgrade roadmap 🧠

  • Core development teams officially designated the network’s next upgrade as “Hegota,” defining the 2026 development cycle within the blockchain’s twice-yearly release schedule. 🚀📅
  • The name blends the execution layer’s “Bogota” upgrade, following Devcon host city naming traditions, with the consensus layer’s “Heze” star designation. 🌟🌌

Bybit returns to UK market operations 🇬🇧📉

  • The exchange announced Thursday it resumed United Kingdom services including spot trading on 100 currency pairs, two years after stricter promotional and marketing regulations forced its departure. 🚫📉
  • The platform serving approximately 80 million users worldwide restarted operations under updated compliance frameworks addressing UK regulatory requirements. 📊🔐

Terraform Labs liquidator sues Jump Trading 🧨

  • Court-appointed plan administrator Todd Snyder filed suit seeking $4 billion in damages from Jump Trading, co-founder William DiSomma, and former president Kanav Kariya for the firm’s 2022 multibillion-dollar collapse. 💔💸
  • The Wall Street Journal reported the legal action targets Jump Trading’s role in the Terra ecosystem failure, with the company confirming the lawsuit through social media communications. 📰📱

Annual cryptocurrency theft exceeds $3.4 billion 💸

  • Blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis reported that cryptocurrency theft totaled over $3.41 billion from January through early December. 🚨💰
  • The $1.5 billion Bybit exchange hack accounted for approximately 44% of the annual total, with the top three incidents representing 69% of all service losses. 🧨📉

Indian regulators approve Coinbase-CoinDCX investment 💼

  • The Competition Commission of India approved Tuesday Coinbase Global’s proposed minority stake acquisition in DCX Global Limited, the parent company of local exchange CoinDCX. 📈🤝
  • The approval follows CoinDCX’s recovery from a $44 million security breach that required substantial user compensation efforts. 🧩💸

Coinbase unveils comprehensive platform expansion 🚀

  • The exchange revealed Wednesday during a livestreamed event that U.S. customers will gain access to traditional stock trading alongside over a dozen new and updated products. 📉📈
  • Platform enhancements span prediction markets, Solana-based decentralized finance integration, and end-to-end infrastructure for creating real-world asset digital representations. 🏦🌐

Visa extends stablecoin settlement to United States 💵

  • The payments giant expanded its stablecoin pilot to include U.S. settlements using Circle’s USDC on the Solana (SOL) blockchain. 🏦🪙
  • Initial banking partners Cross River Bank and Lead Bank will enable U.S. acquirer and issuer partners to settle in USDC, with broader rollout expected throughout 2026. 📅🚀

Strategy maintains billion-dollar Bitcoin purchases 💰

  • Strategy announced its second consecutive week of nearly $1 billion Bitcoin (BTC) acquisitions, adding 10,645 BTC for $980.3 million at an average price of $92,098 per coin. 📈💸

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2025-12-21 15:37