Roland Guirdonan
Roland is a Public Relations & Communications guru with an immense passion for the blockchain and crypto industry. A fusion of his expertise and passion led to the dawn of Optimisus in 2020.
Articles by Roland Guirdonan
1 year ago
1 min read
Do Kwon, the co-founder and former CEO of Terraform Labs, has been arrested by the Montenegrin police after a prolonged manhunt. According to the Montenegrin Minister of Interior, Filip Adzic, Kwon was apprehended at the Podgorica airport with falsified documents. He is sought after by South Korea, the US, and Singapore for his alleged role in a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud involving an algorithmic stablecoin and other crypto asset securities. The collapse of the Terra (LUNA) ecosystem has been linked to Do Kwon and Terraform Labs, which have been accused by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission
1 year ago
1 min read
Trading platform eToro has secured $250 million in funding from investors including SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Velvet Sea Ventures, and ION Group at a valuation of $3.5 billion. This marks the first time the Israel-based firm has raised capital since 2018, after failing to go public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger last year. The funding comes as part of an Advance Investment Agreement (AIA) entered into by eToro earlier this year as part of its proposed SPAC transaction. The AIA is a legal agreement between an investor and a company under which the investor commits to investing
1 year ago
1 min read
The crypto winter has been a harsh reality for many investors in the cryptocurrency market, but it seems that scammers are not immune to its effects either. As the bear market takes hold, scam revenue has dropped by a staggering 46%, according to recent data from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. Despite this, however, scammers are still finding ways to adapt and thrive in these difficult times. During a recent webinar focused on crypto crimes that affect consumers, Eric Jardine, cybercrimes research lead at Chainalysis, shed light on how scammers shift their tactics as market conditions change. He noted that not
1 year ago
2 mins read
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in its first-ever crypto-related case, as lawyers for San Francisco-based crypto exchange Coinbase attempt to convince the nine Justices to pause a pair of class-action lawsuits against the company. Although the case involves crypto, it is not a crypto case. Instead, it concerns an esoteric, procedural argument over whether a lawsuit can proceed in federal court while one party – in this case, Coinbase – is attempting to send the dispute to arbitration. Coinbase is appealing a federal court’s earlier decision that allowed two lawsuits, Bielski v. Coinbase and Suski v.
1 year ago
1 min read
Flagstar Bank, a subsidiary of New York Community Bancorp, has agreed to acquire $38.4 billion worth of non-crypto deposits and $12.9 billion in loans from the collapsed Signature Bank. However, the $4 billion of crypto-related deposits will not be included in the purchase and assumption agreement. The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) confirmed that these deposits would be transferred directly to customers who opened a digital banking account. This transfer will amount to 4.5% of the total $88.6 billion deposits that Signature Bank had as of December 31, 2022. The takeover deal will see Signature Bank’s 40 branches operating
1 year ago
1 min read
Uniswap, one of the leading decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, announced on 17 March that it would be deploying on Avalanche and adding support for AVAX. The deployment of Uniswap could have a significant impact on Avalanche in terms of transaction volume and Total Value Locked (TVL). According to some community members, the catalyst for the proposal to deploy Uniswap V3 on Avalanche was the expiration of the Business Source License (BSL) on 1 April, which will allow developers to fork the Uniswap V3. Voting on the proposal ended on 17 March, with 91.26% of the 26 million votes cast in
1 year ago
1 min read
Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, recently addressed concerns about the network’s governance structure, reassuring ADA enthusiasts and users that development processes will be robust and transparent. In a March 16 video, Hoskinson responded to FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) about CIP 1694, a new governance proposal set to usher in the age of Voltaire to Cardano. The Voltaire era of Cardano will be the fifth major phase of the Cardano blockchain, and is expected to lay out the foundations for decentralized decision-making, ushering the network into a self-sustaining system. Thus, CIP 1694 seeks to build on and extend the
1 year ago
1 min read
The recent attack on Euler Finance, which resulted in the loss of $196 million, has sent shockwaves throughout the crypto community. As investigators try to uncover the identity of the hacker responsible, new developments have emerged. The hacker has now moved some of the stolen funds through a popular crypto mixer, Tornado Cash. PeckShield, a blockchain analytics firm, tweeted on March 16 that the exploiter behind the flash loan attack was “on the move.” The hacker transferred 1,000 Ether, worth approximately $1.65 million, through the Tornado Cash mixer. This move comes just hours after Euler Labs announced a $1 million
1 year ago
2 mins read
Voyager Digital, an insolvent lender, has hit a roadblock in its plan to sell its digital assets to Binance.US, a cryptocurrency exchange, due to an objection by U.S. authorities. The objection stems from a clause in the agreement that would prevent U.S. authorities from taking legal action against anyone involved in the sale. U.S. Trustee William Harrington and other government lawyers filed a motion before a New York bankruptcy court, claiming that the court exceeded its statutory power in authorizing the clause. While not objecting to other aspects of the transaction, U.S. authorities argue that the clause would make it
1 year ago
1 min read
Signature Bank, a financial institution known for its cryptocurrency-friendly policies, has been under investigation by two US government agencies before its recent closure. According to reports, the Department of Justice (DOJ) was looking into whether the bank had taken enough measures to detect potential money laundering by its clients. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was also conducting its own investigation, but details of its nature were not disclosed. It remains unclear when the investigations started and whether they played a role in the New York state regulator’s decision to shut down the bank. Despite this, reports indicate that Signature
1 year ago
1 min read
Bitcoin has hit a new nine-month high of $26,533 on Tuesday, marking its fourth consecutive day of gains. This surge in value comes as a result of the chaos in global markets after the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The rise in Bitcoin’s price follows the expected rate of 6.0% YoY for the Consumer Price Index (CPI). On Sunday, Bitcoin gained 7.6%, and on Monday, it gained 9.1%, with the highest recorded price on Tuesday at around 1306 GMT. This increase in value highlights Bitcoin’s resilience despite its volatile past and the recent setbacks in the cryptocurrency market. The
1 year ago
1 min read
Euler Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol, has suffered a flash loan attack resulting in the biggest crypto hack of 2023. The attack led to a loss of nearly $197 million, impacting not only Euler but also 11 other DeFi protocols. In response, Euler disabled the vulnerable etoken module and donation function to block deposits. The company has reached out to leading on-chain analytic and blockchain security firms to help investigate and recover the funds. Euler is also in contact with those responsible for the attack in hopes of negotiating a bounty for the return of the stolen funds.
