Saga (SAGA) Surge

In what could result in a new regulatory win for the blockchain payment company Ripple Labs, the US Securities and...

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in a major cryptocurrency collapse. A US district judge described Kwon’s actions as “unusually serious” fraud, noting he lied to the market for years about TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin that ultimately failed. The collapse of TerraUSD and another digital currency erased an estimated $40 billion in market value in 2022, devastating hundreds of thousands of investors. The judge emphasized the need for deterrence, rejecting a lighter sentence. Kwon, who has already served over 17 months in custody, may be transferred to Fort Dix or serve part of his sentence in South Korea, where he faces additional charges including securities fraud and money laundering.

On January 21, the SagaEVM chain, part of the Saga Layer-1 ecosystem, was paused following a security exploit. The team identified the attacker’s wallet and confirmed approximately $7 million in assets were stolen, with some funds bridged to Ethereum and converted to ETH or other tokens. The chain was halted at block height 6,593,800 to prevent further unauthorized transfers. The attack involved contract deployments, cross-chain interactions, and rapid liquidity withdrawals. Saga is working with exchanges to blacklist the address and is conducting a forensic investigation. The exploit affected SagaEVM and related EVM environments, but the mainnet and validator security remained uncompromised.

Federal prosecutors have raised significant doubts about the authenticity of a letter submitted by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) from prison in support of his motion for a new trial. The DOJ highlighted multiple inconsistencies: the letter was sent via FedEx, which is prohibited for inmates; the return address incorrectly identified the facility; tracking showed it originated from Palo Alto, not the prison; and it was signed with an "/s/" rather than a physical signature. SBF, previously convicted and sentenced to 25 years for fraud, claims new evidence and judicial bias warrant a retrial. The DOJ has urged the court to deny his request, arguing the defense fails to meet legal standards for a new trial.