Crypto
crypto
Sage D. Young

South Korea has the second-largest crypto market in the world

Crypto trading volume denominated in the South Korean won stands at $663 billion so far this year, second only to the US dollar, which has seen $832 billion in volume, per market data provider Kaiko. 

2025 fiat trading volume: kaiko

Kaiko’s Tuesday data brief said, “Nearly one in three South Korean adults owns crypto, twice the adoption rate in the U.S., highlighting the growing political and economic influence of digital assets.” 

Despite containing one of the most active crypto scenes, the country doesn’t have spot crypto ETFs yet (not even a bitcoin one!), but the volume shows there is demand for a crypto-related exchange-traded fund in the market, according to Kaiko. Crypto natives believe the election of South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae-myung, who has pledged to legalize such investment vehicles and allow firms to issue stablecoins, signals that a Korean ETF is imminent.   

Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Lee’s ruling Democratic Party introduced the Digital Asset Basic Act. If passed, it would enable companies to issue stablecoins if they have a minimum of 500 million won or about $368,000 in equity capital.

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crypto
Sage D. Young

Crypto market snaps back as sentiment lifts, with altcoins from ethereum to XRP soaring

The market capitalization of the crypto industry has jumped around $83.2 billion in the last 24 hours, with privacy-focused token Zcash and worldcoin, the native cryptocurrency of the network backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, leading market gains, jumping over 22%.

But the last 24 hours have been good across the board:

“Investors have been eager to see some positive signs around the Iranian conflict ending, coupled with hopeful outlooks around the CLARITY act, both breathing some life into assets,” Kairos Research cofounder Ian Unsworth told Sherwood News.

Simon Shockey, a crypto strategist at crypto wallet infrastructure firm Privy, said the upswing stems from several things converging. He pointed to how alt markets broadly were “very oversold” following the bug found in Zcash that shook confidence.

Friday, Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox said Anthropic didn’t find any more serious bugs with the Zcash protocol after Shielded Labs requested the AI firm run a security audit of the network with Mythos.

Shockey added that the pool of willing sellers has dwindled. “Even if structurally, AI is a much more compelling and asymmetric bet in the eyes of allocators, many of these crypto assets have simply run out of marginal sellers despite some shorter-term narrative-driven pumps. The only people left to sell at this point are the teams themselves and VCs.”

“Net-net: oversold conditions plus exhausted seller bases plus a macro backdrop that’s stabilized equals a snapback, especially in names that have real usage or community conviction behind them,” Shockey told Sherwood.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy
4h
Bitcoin hits highest level in 2 weeks following news of Iran deal

Bitcoin crossed $66,500 Monday morning as the broad crypto market welcomed the return of a risk-on mood.

Price Of Bitcoin Reaches New High, As Inflation Rises At Level Not Seen In 30 Years
Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy
6/12/26
The second half of the year might be more auspicious for bitcoin

“Winter is over. Welcome back to crypto Spring,” one analyst declared.

Bitcoin
Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy
6/11/26
Investors slice $2 billion out of bitcoin ETFs so far in June

The rate of outflows puts the funds on track to far surpass May’s losses.

bitcoin cake
$389M
Sage D. Young

US Attorney David Metcalf announced Thursday the arrests of Ruslan Igorevich Tkachuk and Alexander Vladimirovich Ledenev, alleged senior members of AudiA6, a cryptocurrency money-laundering service believed to be responsible for laundering over $389 million.

The arrests coincided with a coordinated international takedown of AudiA6 and its infrastructure, involving the search of three properties, the seizure of servers and domains connected to the organization, as well as freezing cryptocurrency assets, according to a Department of Justice press release.

Tkachuk and Ledenev were “charged by criminal complaint with one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and one count of sting money laundering,” the DOJ said. If convicted, they face a maximum possible sentence of 20 years of incarceration.

Per the criminal complaint, AudiA6 offered services to conceal the origin of cryptocurrency linked to criminal activity, charging fees of up to 5% of the amount laundered.

The two defendants are in custody of Republic of Georgia authorities, and the US Attorney’s Office aims to seek their extradition to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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