Montenegro is slowing its roll on extraditing former Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon, according to Bloomberg.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Montenegro planned to extradite the former executive to the United States over his home country, South Korea. Kwon faces charges in both countries. 

The extension, Bloomberg reported, came at the request of both the US and South Korea. A court in Podgorica ruled that the term in custody would be extended to February. Without an extension, the term would have ended Friday.

Kwon has been in Montenegro since March, when he was first arrested for allegedly using falsified paperwork. He was sentenced to prison in June.

Read more: Terraform…

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More than a year after publicly refusing to bend to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, stablecoin issuer Tether is getting on board with sanctions compliance. 

Tether over the weekend said it would be expanding its security protocols to freeze wallets associated with US-sanctioned individuals and entities. Starting this month, the stablecoin issuer has offered secondary market controls by freezing tokens held in wallets separate from its own platform, the company said in a statement.

“The primary objective behind this approach is to proactively prevent any potential misuse of Tether tokens and enhance security measures,” Tether wrote in the Dec. 9 blog post. 

Tether has…

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Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, expected to be extradited to the United States to face criminal charges, will reportedly stay in Montenegrin custody until February.

According to a Dec. 12 Bloomberg report, authorities with the U.S. and South Korea requested Montenegrin officials hold Kwon for an additional two months following the conclusion of his prison sentence. The Terraform Labs co-founder was arrested in Montenegro in March for using falsified travel documents and sentenced to four months behind bars.

Kwon, a South Korean national formerly based in Singapore, has been charged in the U.S. and South Korea for his alleged role in the collapse of Terra. The Wall Street Journal…

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Coinbase and its asset management arm teamed up to launch Project Diamond, a smart contract platform that allows institutions to trade and create new digital assets.

The goal is to allow institutions to manage digital assets “directly on-chain,” Coinbase said. However, only institutions outside of the US will be able to use it.

The platform uses both Base — Coinbase’s layer-2 blockchain — and Coinbase’s technology stack, which includes Coinbase Prime, Web3 Wallet and USDC. The platform itself is managed by Coinbase Asset Management. 

Coinbase officially launched Base in August after unveiling the network back in February. Developers, however, were able to access Base back…

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Dear Senators,

As a representative of the digital asset and blockchain industry, I write this letter to urge you to reconsider your position on the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act. 

This proposed bill is designed to strip away the security layer from digital asset transactions, which are engineered to offer your constituents faster, more cost-effective solutions and serve as a shield against inflation. By potentially driving these critical security providers offshore, the bill risks destabilizing the progress and reliability that digital assets bring to the US economy — this would be perilous for US consumers and investors. 

These are your constituents, and your support of…

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Fresh off a strategic combination, Hut 8 looks to further accelerate its growth by snatching up four Canadian power plants and a new bitcoin mining site.

The company’s subsidiary, BidCo, has won a bid to acquire these Ontario natural gas power plants, as well as the North Bay bitcoin mine, from Validus Power Corp, Hut 8 said Tuesday. The four plants have a total capacity of 310 megawatts (MW). 

The deal is set to close by January, pending court approval. The bid amount was not disclosed.  

Hut 8 merged with US Bitcoin Corp. as part of a deal that closed earlier this month. 

The combination gives the new-look firm greater geographic diversity and more revenue streams, industry…

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Crypto exchange Kucoin has agreed to pay $22 million to the State of New York and to bar residents of the state from using its platform, according to a stipulation and consent order filed in the New York Supreme Court on December 12.

Stipulation and consent order filed on December 12. Source: Supreme Court of the State of New York.

According to the order, Kucoin admits that it “operates a cryptocurrency trading platform on which users, including users in New York state, can purchase or sell cryptocurrencies which are securities or commodities as defined under the laws of New York state and that Kucoin is not registered as a securities or commodities broker-dealer.” In addition, Kucoin…

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The S&P Global Ratings unveiled its stablecoin stability assessment on Tuesday.

The launch looked at Dai (DAI), First Digital USD (FDUSD), Tether (USDT), Frax (FRAX), TrueUSD (TUSD) and USD Coin (USDC).

In order to assess the stablecoins, analysts primarily looked at the “quality of the assets backing the stablecoin.” Overall quality is measured by the custody risks, credit and market value. 

Read more: Tether is ‘unfairly maligned,’ but will eventually fail, says Nic Carter

Regulation, governance, supervision, liquidity, redeemability and technology are also measured, and “contributed to those stablecoins with lower assessments,” S&P said in a press release.

USDC, USDP and…

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