Crypto Company SafeMoon Files for Bankruptcy Following Founder and Executives’ Indictment on Fraud Charges Last Month

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SafeMoon CEO bail release goes on hold after Feds cite flight risk

November 10, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Arrested

Prosecutors argued SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony poses a flight risk given his alleged access to funds and overseas connections.

United States federal prosecutors have managed to put SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony’s bail release order on hold, citing flight risk and his release being a possible “danger to the community.

On Nov. 9, New York District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall stayed a Nov. 8 bail release order after prosecutors challenged a Utah Magistrate judge’s decision to let Karony out on a $500,000 bail.

Prosecutors made the challenge to Judge Daphne Oberg’s decision in New York, saying the release order was given “without consideration of the defendant’s substantial financial means and ability to flee” and added his release posed a “continued danger to the community.”

“If convicted, the defendant faces a statutory maximum of 45 years’ imprisonment,” prosecutors wrote.

“These facts all provide powerful incentives for the defendant to leverage his substantial (and opaque) financial assets and foreign ties to avoid that outcome.”

Judge Oberg’s Nov. 8 order would have permitted Karony to stay at his Miami apartment and barred him from accessing crypto exchanges or wallets, holding or transacting crypto and banned him from engaging in promotional activities.

Prosecutors however claimed the Utah court overlooked Karony’s assets when setting his bail at $500,000. They alleged the SafeMoon chief provided “almost no information concerning his finances” and claimed he can access “assets totaling millions of dollars.”

Karony also has “substantial and ever-expanding” overseas ties and has spent months outside the U.S. in Europe and the United Kingdom with his fiancée, a British citizen and resident, prosecutors alleged.

Prosecutors also asked the court to transport Karony to New York and have him detained there which Judge Hall will consider at a later date.

Karony was arrested on Oct. 31 at Salt Lake City International Airport and was charged alongside SafeMoon creator Kyle Nagy and chief technology officer Thomas Smith with conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.

The Securities and Exchange Commission also charged the trio with various fraud charges and unregistered securities sales and alleged they misappropriated funds to purchase SafeMoon (SFM) tokens to prop up its price.

SafeMoon technology chief Thomas Smith was released on a $500,000 bond on Nov. 3 and is pursuing a plea deal while the Department of Justice said Nagy remains at large.

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What are reflection tokens and how do they work?

December 25, 2022 Coin Telegraph

BabyFloki

Reflection tokens allow holders to earn passive returns from transaction fees by simply holding onto their assets.

Yield farming, liquidity mining, and staking have become common practices in the crypto market due to the remarkable growth the DeFi ecosystem has witnessed in recent years. These features enable users to earn interest on their crypto holdings by locking them as deposits for specific periods.

The concepts sound appealing but there's one big risk: the potential decline in the valuation of the locked assets. In other words, users will see losses in U.S. dollar terms if the asset's value drops during the lock-in period.

These shortcomings have raised "reflection tokens" as a viable alternative. In theory, reflection tokenomics remove the necessity of locking tokens while still offering staking-like benefits.

What are reflection tokens?

The projects backing the reflection tokens charge a penalty tax (calculated in percentages) on each transaction. In turn, they give out the fee to all token holders depending on the percentage of assets they hold.

As a result, reflection tokens' holders do not need to lock their assets for a certain period to earn rewards. They earn their income almost instantly in most cases when a transaction is made, with the functions governed by a smart contract.

In addition, users can deposit their reflection tokens in third-party lending and yield farming contracts to earn additional yields. But while the combination of incentives for holding and staking theoretically reduces sell-side pressure, this has not been the case with most reflection assets.

Popular reflection tokens

Some of the most popular reflection tokens include: SafeMoon (SAFEMOON), BabyFloki (BABYFLOKI), FlyPaper (STICKY), MinersDefi (MINERS), and EverGrow Coin (EGC).

For instance, EverGrow Coin (EGC) 's price dropped nearly 98% after peaking at $0.0000039298 in November 2021. This project takes 2% of its network fee and distributes them in the form of Binance USD (BUSD) tokens across the EGC holders.

*EGC/USD weekly price chart. Source: TradingView*

The EGC weekly chart above shows its bearish price trend accompanying very low trading volumes, suggesting that the buying and selling on its network died down after the early hype. Less volume means lower rewards for EGC holders, which may have prompted them to sell their assets.

Risks associated with reflection tokens

Reflection tokens give holders the benefit of growing their passive incomes with immediate reward distributions. Nonetheless, they carry specific risks that could impact investors' profitability. Let's have a look:

Transaction tax

Projects asses transaction tax when users buy and sell reflection tokens. In other words, first-time buyers typically pay a transaction fee which they can recoup only if the project gains adoption. As a result, it could take months for investors to see profits.

Scams

Scammer can misuse the growing reflection token trend just as any other digital tokens. They could dupe investors into paying initial transaction taxes, only to abandon the project midway and abscond with all the invested funds.

Uneven returns

Reflection tokens do not guarantee consistent returns given the yields depend on the asset's day-to-day volume. There's a possibility that a token may generate zero yields in the event of no activity on its network.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE), XRP and Six Altcoins Among Most Googled Crypto Assets of 2022

December 24, 2022 The Daily Hodl

Top-five most Googled cryptocurrencies worldwide in 2022

December 23, 2022 Coin Telegraph

2022

Bitcoin remains the most-searched cryptocurrency in 2022 by far thanks to its top-brand status and being in a league of its own when it comes to decentralization.

Cryptocurrencies have suffered immensely in 2022 from the onslaught of a hawkish Federal Reserve and the implosions of crypto platforms FTX, Terra, Celsius Network, and others.

What were the most-searched cryptocurrencies in 2022?

Notably, the market valuation of all the cryptocurrencies combined has dropped 70% year-to-date (YTD) to nearly $770 billion, signifying massive capitulations by traders and investors alike.

The waning demand has also pushed the internet requests fo6r the keyword "buy cryptocurrency" to their lowest since February 2020, according to Google Trends.

*Interest in the* *the keyword "buy cryptocurrency" over the past five years. Source: Google Trends*

Nonetheless, the latest Accenture's 2022 Global Consumer Payments report shows that retail interest in cryptocurrencies remains high despite 2022's market crash. The reasons given by responders include long-term investments (28%), curiosity (22%), short-term speculation (21%), and others.

Meanwhile, separate research by personal finance portal DollarGeek dwells into 2022's most-searched cryptocurrencies worldwide, thus presenting a rough outlook on what retail players may invest in heading into 2023.

*Top 10 cryptocurrencies based on U.S. and global monthly searches. Source: DollarGeek*

Bitcoin remains most-googled by far

Bitcoin (BTC) has emerged as the most googled cryptocurrency in 2022 in DollarGeek's research, attracting 28.41 million monthly searches worldwide.

The interest remains relatively high as experts assess its quality compared to other crypto assets in the industry. For instance, venture capital investor Tim Draper thinks weaker coins will become relics amid the ongoing crypto winter to Bitcoin's benefit.

With @CNBC @WebSummit . Here is why @bitcoin will reach $250k. https://t.co/DqARhl8pAu
— Tim Draper (@TimDraper) December 16, 2022

BTC's price is down nearly 65% YTD with some analysts predicting it would fall further toward $10,000. But internet searches over the past 12 months reveal that most people have searched for buying Bitcoin, not selling it, which suggests that most people have still never owned Bitcoin.

*Interest in the keyword '"buy bitcoin" (red) and "sell bitcoin" (blue) over the last 12 months. Source: Google Trends*

Elon Musk's favorite Dogecoin bags the second spot

Dogecoin (DOGE) is the runner-up to Bitcoin, attracting an average of 5.85 million monthly searches worldwide in 2022.

The meme-cryptocurrency was in the news mostly due to Elon Musk who purchased Twitter and teased his followers with the idea of integrating DOGE payments for in-app payments. However, it also gained traction after getting listed on Robinhood, a U.S.-based commission-free trading platform.

**Click “Collect” below the illustration at the top of the page or** **follow this link**.

These events helped Dogecoin record temporary surges in internet searches, as shown in the Google Trends chart below. For instance, Musk's eventual Twitter buyout in late October coincided with Dogecoin internet trends rallying to a perfect 100 score.

*Interest in the keyword "Dogecoin" over the last 12 months. Source: Google Trends*

So wile DOGE's price is down roughly 55% YTD, the internet search data suggests that its potential pool of buyers could be relatively higher in number than sellers, similar to Bitcoin.

*Interest in the keyword "buy Dogecoin" (blue) and "sell Dogecoin" (red) over the last 12 months. Source: Google Trends*

Shiba Inu comes third but beats Dogecoin in US

Shiba Inu's (SHIB) monthly internet searches globally came at 4.43 million. Nonetheless, the meme-coin has beaten its top-rival Dogecoin in the U.S., with 1.29 million monthly searches versus DOGE's 729,000.

That is despite Shiba Inu's weaker price performance in 2022 compared to Dogecoin. SHIB is down roughly 75% YTD, but staying in the news due to its foray into the metaverse and the potential launch of Shibarium, Shiba Inu's Ethereum layer-2 blockchain.

In addition, the internet searches for Shiba Inu also spiked due to Crypto.com, a crypto exchange with the largest SHIB position as of November 2022. The market feared that Crypto.com would become insolvent, which will prompt it to sell its SHIB holdings.

*Interest in the keyword "Shiba Inu" over the last 12 months. Source: Google Trends*

However, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek clarified that their mounting SHIB reserves are due to customer buying.

Merge assists Ethereum in securing the fourth position

Ethereum is the fourth most-googled cryptocurrency worldwide with 3.84 million monthly searches in 2022 despite Ether (ETH) price losing 67% YTD.

The second-largest blockchain by market cap stayed in the news throughout the year due to its switch to proof-of-stake (PoS) from proof-of-work (PoW) via the Merge. Notably, interest in the keyword "Ethereum" and related terms like "Ethereum 2.0" and "Merge" peaked in September when the PoS switch happened.

*Interest in the keyword "Merge" over the last 12 months. Source: Google Trends*

Ethereum's internet searches may have also gained traction due to concerns that it has become a security after the PoS upgrade. Recently, crypto platform Paxful removed support for ETH citing similar reasons.

Cardano pump brings in the fifth-highest internet queries

Cardano (ADA) has attracted 1.47 million monthly internet searches on average in 2022, becoming the fifth-most googled cryptocurrency worldwide.

The Cardano trend picked up momentum specifically in January 2022 when ADA outperformed Bitcoin and Ether in price. Later, however, searches have been declining despite the Vasil hard fork in September failing to produce a spike in interest.

*Interest in the keyword "Cardano" over the last 12 months. Source: Google Trends*

Other honorable mentions of the most-searched cryptocurrencies in 2022 include Avalanche (AVAX), Litecoin (LTC), XRP (XRP), SafeMoon (SAFEMOON), and Nexus (NXS).

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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