Do Kwon Sentenced To 15 Years In Prison

Hi! In today’s edition:

• ⚖️ Do Kwon sentenced to 15 years over the Terra collapse

• 📉 $350 billions in unrealized losses pile up across crypto

• 🗳️ Prediction markets organize to shape U.S. regulation

• 🔁 Wrapped XRP is coming to DeFi

• 🎙️ How AI agents can hack smart contracts for $1

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Do Kwon Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his actions that led to the 2022 collapse of TerraUSD and LUNA, causing about $40 billion in investor losses.

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer imposed the sentence on Thursday, exceeding prosecutors' 12-year recommendation but below the 25-year maximum.

“To the next Do Kwon, if you commit fraud, you will lose your liberty for a long time as you will here,” Engelmayer said to Kwon during the sentencing hearing, as reported by Inner City Press.

Kwon must also forfeit $19 million and faces possible South Korean charges after serving half his term.

Ahead of the hearing, several investors submitted impact statements to the court detailing the extent of their financial losses.

One user who invested $250,000 in UST in the Anchor Protocol to earn yield, sold his holdings after the UST depeg at around 5 to 8 cents.

“My financial damages were life-changing. I lost the equivalent of several years of income in a matter of days,” said one of the victims. 

LUNA, the native token of Terra 2.0 that was launched after the original Terra chain's collapse, dropped 10% after the news despite rallying 120% in the week leading up to Kwon’s sentencing hearing. 

“The new LUNA has no relationship to the original Terra economy, most newcomers don’t realize this,” noted one user on X. 

Today on Unchained On Air: One of crypto’s biggest winners in 2025 — prediction markets!

Don’t miss this conversation at 12pm ET: Markus Thielen, CEO of 10x Research, sits down with Laura to discuss prediction markets’ current moment, how to trade them, what he thinks is in store for 2026, and more!

📺️ Where to watch it: YouTube, X, PumpFun, or Twitch

Unrealized Crypto Losses Rise to $350 Billion: Glassnode

Data from onchain analytics platform Glassnode shows unrealized losses in the crypto market sit at $350 billion, with bitcoin alone accounting for $85 billion.

The data comes amid tighter liquidity conditions across crypto exchanges, with lower stablecoin flows and reduced trading volumes that have amplified volatility risks.

The rise in unrealized losses reflects weeks of volatile price action after bitcoin lost support above the $110,000 mark, suggesting short-term bitcoin holders were the most negatively impacted.

“Structurally, these deep loss pockets usually show up closer to the late stages of a correction than the early ones,” wrote CryptoQuant analyst IT Tech on X, noting that BTC short-term holders are seeing some of the deepest losses of 2025.

Crypto.com and Kalshi Lead Prediction Market Coalition Setup

Crypto.com, Kalshi, Coinbase, Robinhood, and Underdog have teamed up to launch the Coalition for Prediction Markets (CPM), with the goal of providing a voice to prediction markets.

The effort, led by Crypto.com and Kalshi, aims to promote safe, transparent, and federally regulated prediction markets amid rapid sector growth.

“From day one, we wanted to be regulated,” said Kalshi’s head of corporate development Sara Slane, stressing the need for consistent rules over conflicting interpretations.

Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said the coalition’s goal would be to work with policymakers to educate the public on how prediction markets are distinctly different from casinos and sportsbooks.

“With prediction markets, there is no “house” and no penalty for winning. People trade in a transparent and competitive environment against each other, just like the stock market,” said Mansour on X.

Prediction market usage has surged over the last year, with nearly half of Americans under 45 using online platforms.

Hex Trust to Launch Wrapped XRP Across Multiple Chains

Hong Kong-based digital asset custodian Hex Trust plans to issue a wrapped version of XRP called wWRP.

The token will be a 1:1-backed representation of native XRP and will be launched across blockchains, debuting with $100 million in total value locked. It will enable XRP holders to access liquidity pools, lending, and trading on other blockchains without unregulated bridges.

wXRP ensures full backing by XRP held in segregated, insured custody accounts, with tokens minted only upon deposit and burned upon redemption to match supply exactly.

Hex Trust envisions the “core utility” of the token will be to make it easier to use XRP alongside Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD as a trading and liquidity pair.

How AI Agents Hacked Smart Contracts for $1 Apiece – DEX in the City

The DEX in the City crew dives into Citadel’s controversial DeFi regulation letter, the CFTC’s “race” to regulate crypto, and how AI agents can hack smart contracts for $1 each.

Citadel has sparked uproar with a letter calling on the SEC to regulate DeFi protocols as exchanges. But the company’s requests may not be totally unreasonable.

In this episode of DEX in the City, hosts Jessi Brooks, Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, and Vy Le dig into Citadel’s controversial letter and how it is a reminder that “crypto is a bubble.”

They also discuss how the CFTC and SEC are in a “race to the top,” plus Jessi explains how AI agents can exploit smart contracts they haven’t been trained on for just $1 apiece.

Plus, Vy calls on the crypto community to support Samourai developers.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

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• 📱 Coinbase is expected to unveil new products at its December 17 event, including its own prediction markets and tokenized U.S. stock offerings, after weeks of leaked app screenshots surfaced online even though the company has not yet officially confirmed the features.

• 🌐 x402 released version 2 of its open-source payment protocol, transforming it from a single-use crypto payment tool into a broader system that supports wallet identities, automatic payment discovery, flexible recipients, and both blockchain and traditional currency support.

• 📜 DTCC said its clearing arm DTC received SEC approval to run a three-year pilot that tokenizes traditional financial assets on public blockchains, allowing digital versions of stocks or bonds to carry the same legal rights as their paper-based counterparts starting in 2026.

• 🎯 The U.S. derivatives regulator granted temporary regulatory relief to prediction and derivatives platforms including Polymarket, PredictIt, Gemini, and LedgerX, allowing them to operate under lighter reporting rules as long as they meet specific compliance conditions.

• 💼 U.S. lawmakers urged the SEC to update its rules so retirement accounts like 401(k)s can include bitcoin and other digital assets, while also pushing for looser investor eligibility standards and closer coordination with labor regulators.

• 🔗 JPMorgan arranged and settled a $50 million short-term corporate debt issuance for crypto firm Galaxy Digital directly on the Solana blockchain, with Coinbase and asset manager Franklin Templeton buying the notes and payments handled in USDC as the bank expanded its blockchain-based bond infrastructure.

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