APE, the native token of the ApeCoin decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), a community-focused effort established to steer the growth and development of the Bored Ape ecosystem was a top gainer among the top 100 on Saturday as its price suddenly gained 20%.
At the time of publication, APE traded at $5.65, up 21.22% in the past 24 hours and 13.09% in the week, even as other major cryptocurrencies added slight gains.
The advent of ApeCoin staking – which would allow holders to borrow cryptocurrencies against their Bored Ape NFTs – remains a fundamental catalyst for price. Horizen Labs which is building the APE staking product, confirmed recently that development was underway and that it was gearing to release the product this fall.
Over the weekend, the unlocking of 25 million tokens – which is 8% of ApeCoin’s current circulating supply – and part of a planned series of unlocks that will result in an ultimate supply of 1 billion APE tokens, up from the current 314 million was done.
Terra tokens, LUNC and LUNA saw fresh selling pressure as the legal drama involving Terra CEO Do Kwon took another twist. At the time of publication, both tokens were down 7% and 4.85% respectively. Kwon was all the while believed to be in Singapore, however, this was proven likewise as the Singapore police stated that he was no longer in the country.
Do Kwon, the founder of the collapsed Luna and TerraUSD tokens, along with five others, is facing arrest in South Korea. After local police issued a statement Saturday, Kwon tweeted that he doesn’t have anything to hide and is in “full cooperation” with government agencies. He also stated he wasn’t “on the run” but refused to disclose his whereabouts.
In a thread of tweets, Do Kwon wrote, ’’Dear CT – I will tell you what I am doing and where I am if 1) we are friends2) we have plans to meet3) we are involved in a gps based web3 game. Really don’t understand why otherwise would be true – think about whether you would be comfortable with the same level of invasion of privacy for yourself. Otherwise you have no business knowing my gps coordinates.’’
He continued, ‘’I am not “on the run” or anything similar – for any government agency that has shown interest to communicate, we are in full cooperation and we don’t have anything to hide. We are in the process of defending ourselves in multiple jurisdictions – we have held ourselves to an extremely high bar of integrity, and look forward to clarifying the truth over the next few months.”
The South Korean prosecutor’s office is requesting the country’s Foreign Ministry to have Kwon’s passport revoked. If that happens, Kwon would have to return to Seoul within 14 days, according to policy. Singapore police told Bloomberg they will assist the Korean National Police Agency “within the ambit of our domestic legislation and international obligations.”
Kwon saw himself at the epicenter of one of crypto’s biggest blowups when TerraUST depegged in May, thus bringing down the Terra ecosystem.
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