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Crypto mogul Do Kwon sentenced to 15 years in prison over $40B ‘epic fraud’

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Crypto mogul Do Kwon sentenced to 15 years in prison over B ‘epic fraud’

Do Kwon, the South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind two digital currencies that lost an estimated $40 billion in 2022, was sentenced on Thursday to 15 years in prison for for what a judge called an “epic fraud.”

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer, who handed down the sentence, sharply rebuked Kwon for repeatedly lying to everyday investors who trusted him with their life savings.

“This was a fraud on an epic, generational scale. In the history of federal prosecutions, there are few frauds that have caused as much harm as you have, Mr. Kwon,” Engelmayer said during a hearing in Manhattan federal court.

Crypto Mogul Do Kwon, shown in 2023, was sentenced in New York federal court on Thursday to 15 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy. REUTERS

Kwon, 34, who co-founded Singapore-based Terraform Labs and developed the TerraUSD and Luna currencies, previously pleaded guilty and admitted to misleading investors about a coin that was supposed to maintain a steady price during periods of crypto market volatility.

He is one of several cryptocurrency moguls to face federal charges after a slump in digital token prices in 2022 prompted the collapse of a number of companies.

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Dressed in yellow prison garb, Kwon addressed the court and apologized to his victims, including the hundreds who submitted letters to the court describing the harm they had suffered.

“All of their stories were harrowing and reminded me again of the great losses that I’ve caused. I want to tell these victims that I am sorry,” Kwon said.

Ayyildiz Attila, one of the hundreds of victims who submitted letters to the court, said he lost between $400,000 and $500,000 in the collapse.

Kwon in custody in Montenegro in 2024. AP

“My savings, my future, and the results of years of sacrifice disappeared. I struggled to keep up with payments and responsibilities, and everything I had worked forwas erased,” Attila said.

Kwon’s lawyer Sean Hecker said in an email after the sentencing that Kwon spoke from the heart, expressed genuine remorse and will continue his efforts to make amends.

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US Attorney Jay Clayton in Manhattan said in a statement following the hearing that Kwon devised elaborate schemes to inflate the value of his cryptocurrencies and fled accountability when his crimes caught up to him.

Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of at least 12 years in prison, saying the crash of Kwon’s Terra cryptocurrency caused billions of dollars in losses and triggered a cascade of crises in the crypto market.

Kwon’s lawyers had asked that he be sentenced to no more than five years so he can return to South Korea to face criminal charges.

Kwon was accused of misleading investors in 2021 about TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin designed to maintain a value of $1. REUTERS

Prosecutors charged Kwon in January with nine criminal counts for securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and money laundering conspiracy.

Kwon was accused of misleading investors in 2021 about TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin designed to maintain a value of $1. Prosecutors alleged that when TerraUSD slipped below its $1 peg in May 2021, Kwon told investors a computer algorithm known as “Terra Protocol” had restored the coin’s value.

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Instead, Kwon arranged for a high-frequency trading firm to secretly buy millions of dollars of the token to artificially prop up its price, according to charging documents.

Kwon pleaded guilty in August to two counts, conspiracy to defraud and wire fraud, and apologized in court for his conduct.

“I made false and misleading statements about why it regained its peg by failing to disclose a trading firm’s role in restoring that peg,” Kwon said at the time. “What I did was wrong.”

Kwon agreed in 2024 to pay $80 million as a civil fine and be banned from crypto transactions as part of a $4.55 billion settlement he and Terraform reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

He also faces charges in South Korea. As part of his plea deal, prosecutors will not oppose Kwon’s potential application to be transferred abroad after serving half his US sentence.

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XRP Slides Sharply as Global Tensions Trigger Broad Risk-off Selling

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XRP Slides Sharply as Global Tensions Trigger Broad Risk-off Selling
XRP slid deeper into a defensive posture as selling pressure persisted, technical indicators stayed bearish and global risk-off sentiment intensified, leaving the token pinned near range lows with traders wary of further downside amid heightened geopolitical and trade tensions.
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1 Top Cryptocurrency to Buy Before It Soars 1,000%, According to Michael Saylor | The Motley Fool

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1 Top Cryptocurrency to Buy Before It Soars 1,000%, According to Michael Saylor | The Motley Fool

The Bitcoin maximalist expects the token’s price to hit $1 million this year.

Bitcoin‘s (BTC 3.80%) price hit an all-time high of $126,210.50 on Oct. 6, 2025, but it now trades at about $90,000. The world’s top cryptocurrency pulled back nearly 30% as many investors booked profits, triggering leveraged liquidations. Geopolitical tensions, tariffs, and other macroeconomic headwinds exacerbated that selling pressure.

Nevertheless, Strategy‘s (MSTR 7.76%) Michael Saylor — who orchestrated his software company’s historic transformation into Bitcoin’s most prominent corporate investor over the past five and a half years — still expects the token’s price to soar more than 1,000% to $1,000,000 this year. Let’s see if that top Bitcoin maximalist’s bold prediction might come true.

Image source: Getty Images.

What’s the bullish case for Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is mined using the energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, which requires miners to solve cryptographic puzzles with powerful chips to earn tokens. It was initially mined with CPUs and GPUs, but its mining rewards are cut in half every four years.

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These scheduled “halvings” make it harder to mine Bitcoin profitably. Today, miners need powerful application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) to produce new tokens.

Bitcoin has a maximum supply of 21 million tokens, and nearly 20 million have already been mined. However, its halvings will delay the last token’s mining until 2140. That fixed scarcity makes Bitcoin more comparable to gold, silver, and other finite commodities. Hence, the bulls claimed it could become a hedge against inflation and the devaluation of fiat currencies.

Bitcoin Stock Quote

Today’s Change

(-3.80%) $-3533.58

Current Price

$89440.00

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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the first spot price exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for Bitcoin in early 2024, which made it easier for retail and institutional investors to gain exposure to the top cryptocurrency without a dedicated crypto wallet. Moreover, the U.S. launched its own Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for seized Bitcoins last March. El Salvador and the Central African Republic also accepted Bitcoin as legal tender for several years.

Those catalysts could transform Bitcoin into “digital gold” over the next few decades. However, Bitcoin’s market cap of $1.8 trillion is still tiny compared to gold’s $33.1 trillion.

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Why does Saylor expect Bitcoin to hit $1 million?

Based on these facts, Bitcoin’s price could rise tenfold and still be significantly less valuable than gold. Saylor, along with the industry’s other Bitcoin maximalists, expects soaring government debt to drive countries to print more money, diluting the value of their fiat currencies. That monetary expansion will drive more investors toward gold and Bitcoin.

Furthermore, the Trump Administration’s recent actions against the Federal Reserve — including an attempt to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook and a Department of Justice (DOJ) probe into Fed chief Jerome Powell — indicate it wants new leaders for the Fed who favor accelerated interest rate cuts.

Deeper interest rate cuts could stimulate the broader economy, but they’ll also weaken the U.S. dollar and possibly drive up inflation again. That shift would probably boost Bitcoin’s value.

Over the past 12 months, gold rallied nearly 60% and silver more than doubled as investors braced for the devaluation of the U.S. dollar. Yet Bitcoin’s price declined by more than 10% during the same period, as it stumbled alongside the market’s more speculative investments.

Therefore, Bitcoin might catch up to gold and silver — and generate even bigger gains — by the end of 2026 as those tailwinds kick in. However, I think it’s too ambitious to expect it to hit $1,000,000. Since Bitcoin is still broadly classified as a speculative play, it could sink much further than gold or silver during the next market crash. I’m bullish on Bitcoin’s long-term growth potential, but I’m bracing for more near-term volatility instead of expecting it to soar 1,000% this year.

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2026 Won’t Be About Cycles — Research Shows What Will Actually Drive Crypto Prices

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2026 Won’t Be About Cycles — Research Shows What Will Actually Drive Crypto Prices
Crypto markets are shedding their four-year cycle as ETFs, concentrated liquidity and investor attention reshape price discovery, with Wintermute research pointing to 2026 as the moment digital assets begin trading like global financial instruments.
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