Hi all, Liam here. 

Any punters betting on a light sentence for Do Kwon this week just saw their bets slashed by a quarter – unless they bought his Terra Luna Classic token last month, just before it went on an eye-watering run.

From December 1 to December 6, Terra Luna Classic rose a whopping 209%. It dropped again on Monday, only to rally another 40% on Wednesday. (It collapsed another 21% on Thursday).   

After the $40 billion collapse of Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin in 2022, the Terra community approved a governance proposal to create a new blockchain and relaunch.

After, the original Terra blockchain was rebranded as Terra Classic, and the original network’s token was rebranded as Luna Classic, or LUNC. The community also launched a fresh blockchain — called Terra 2.0 — complete with its own native token called LUNA.

It’s a lot to take in. But that hasn't stopped people from speculating on all those coins.

The LUNA token also enjoyed a hefty rally ahead of its creator’s highly anticipated trial on Thursday. As did TerraClassicUSD, the rebranded version of the smouldering algorithmic stablecoin.

Indeed, examining the price action of these three tokens over the past month, holders are still up between 17% and 117%. 

For some, the sentencing of one of the industry’s brashest entrepreneurs wasn’t just a cathartic serving of justice. 

Kwon’s blockchain failure — which vaporised some $40 billion in investor funds — shook the crypto industry to its foundations. 

Crypto prices collapsed, and several multibillion-dollar businesses filed for bankruptcy, including crypto lender Celsius, hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, and, most notably, crypto exchange FTX.

Their failures revealed that those businesses were built on fraud, and their founders are either in prison or in exile. 

Judge Paul Engelmayer, who oversaw Kwon’s day in court, characterised the scale of Kwon’s fraud as “epic” and “generational,” when he gave him 15 years in prison.

Still, for many others, the sentencing was another opportunity to make a bit of money. 

On Friday, still more investors are pouring into assets linked to the smouldering project. 

Since 6 am London time on Friday, LUNC, LUNA, and USTC are all up 11%, 25%, and 7%, respectively.

Terra founder Do Kwon sentenced to 15 years, more than prosecutors requested

Do Kwon, the brash entrepreneur whose Terra blockchain vaporised more than $40 billion when it collapsed spectacularly nearly four years ago, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Thursday. Aleks Gilbert reports.

DTCC cleared to tokenise US markets in historic crypto pivot by $100 trillion custodian

The machinery that powers US markets is about to go onchain.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation said on Thursday that it received a no-action letter from the US financial watchdog, paving the way for tokenisation for real-world assets, reports Lance Datskuluo.

DoJ charges Canadian crypto fund manager who ran $42m fraudulent ‘house of cards’

US authorities have filed charges against the Canadian founder of a phoney investment fund that lured $42 million from investors.

The fund, called Gray Digital, was run by 26-year-old Nathan Gauvin. It dazzled investors with records of almost 200% yearly returns, allegedly made by investing customers’ funds across stocks, derivatives, debt, and crypto, reports Tim Craig.

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