🚀 Gemini IPO Shakes Markets, Do Kwon’s Guilty Plea Rocks Crypto, OKX Torches $26B in Tokens | Aug 17 Weekly Firestorm

Crypto's never boring—this week proved it again. Gemini's IPO filing sent shockwaves through traditional finance, while Terra's disgraced founder Do Kwon finally faced the music with a guilty plea. Meanwhile, OKX just incinerated enough tokens to buy a small country—$26 billion worth—because why not?

Wall Street's still trying to 'understand blockchain' while crypto exchanges rewrite the rulebook. Stay tuned—next week promises more chaos (and probably another NFT of a monkey).

Gemini IPO

• The cryptocurrency exchange announced on Friday that it has filed a public S-1 registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its planned initial public offering.

Do Kwon admits guilt

• Terraform Labs founder pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges involving fraud and wire fraud.
• Kwon stated that he “knowingly engaged in a scheme to defraud and did in fact defraud” buyers of the TerraUSD stablecoin.

OKX destroys $26 billion worth of tokens

• The cryptocurrency exchange burned 278,999,999 OKB (OKB) tokens valued at more than $26 billion according to current market pricing.
• This massive token destruction followed an announcement that approximately 65.26 million tokens accumulated through buyback programs and company reserves would be eliminated.

Hong Kong strengthens crypto custody requirements

• The SEC issued new guidance requiring licensed virtual asset trading platforms to strengthen client asset custody practices.
• The guidance responds to multiple overseas incidents that exposed vulnerabilities in digital asset custodial arrangements.

BtcTurk experiences suspicious transfers

• Approximately $48 million worth of cryptocurrency was transferred from wallets associated with Turkish exchange BtcTurk.
• The incident involved large transfers of multiple tokens, including ETH, AVAX, ARB, BASE, OP, MANTLE, and MATIC.

Google updates crypto wallet policies

• The technology giant announced policy changes for software wallets on the Play Store beginning this fall.
• Google now requires custodial digital wallet apps to obtain jurisdiction-specific licenses: MiCA authorization in the EU, FCA registration in the UK, and FinCEN registration in the U.S. before market distribution.

Crypto advisor Bo Hines resigns

• Bo Hines, a former college football athlete and crypto investor leading the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, will step down to return to private sector activities.

Strategy adds more Bitcoin

• The Bitcoin treasury company acquired 155 Bitcoin (BTC) for approximately $18 million between August 4-10, paying an average price of $116,401 per Bitcoin.
• This acquisition brings Strategy’s total holdings to 628,946 BTC.

DeFi Development Corp expands Solana treasury

• The company purchased an additional 110,000 Solana (SOL) tokens, worth approximately $22 million.