CoinMarketCap News, Oct 19: Is Do Kwon Actually Sorry About Terra's Collapse?

There's something very odd about someone giving an interview while a warrant's out for their arrest. But that's exactly what Do Kwon — who founded LUNA and UST — has done with Laura Shin on the Unchained podcast.

To her credit, Laura challenged Do Kwon on many of his assertions, and from the offset, the journalist said she planned to keep an open mind. But at certain points over the 90-minute chat, the Terraform Labs co-founder left us with more questions than answers.

Kwon previously said he's making "zero effort to hide" — but in the interview, he wouldn't reveal the city he was currently based in. We understand that giving out a residential address is a bad idea given concerns over personal safety, but if he really isn't on the run, what would be the harm in telling us which country he's in?

The embattled entrepreneur also attempted to be contrite when asked about the people who had lost everything after Terra collapsed — with some investors reportedly killing themselves. But in my opinion, this just sounded insincere in light of his defiant tweets — which amounted to "shitposting" by his own description. Most of the banter and "lols" he enjoyed on Twitter came after countless investors saw their savings wiped out. If Kwon was truly sorry, he wouldn't have been so utterly tone deaf over the past few months.

Do Kwon has given a surprising — and perhaps ill-advised — interview as a police manhunt continues. Speaking to Laura Shin on the Unchained podcast, the Terraform Labs co-founder once again refused to reveal his current location over fears for his personal safety. He questioned whether Interpol had actually issued a red notice against him, and accused South Korean prosecutors of "attempting to create new regulation through criminal enforcement proceedings." Kwon insisted: "It's not in the interests of 'being on the run' that I don't want to disclose where I live, it's just every time the location of where I live becomes known, it becomes almost impossible for me to live there."

Laura Shin asked him about the "hubris and arrogance" of his tweets. Kwon admitted getting "carried away" while talking to people on Crypto Twitter — and said he had started "shitposting" for entertainment value. Many investors are still reeling from the $60 billion collapse of LUNA and UST. When asked what his message was to victims and their families — some of whom reportedly killed themselves — he apologized and accepted responsibility, adding: "I think the hardest thing about the current situation is having to contend with so much astronomical loss. It's quite hard to put into words, but the scale of the financial and emotional and economic damage that happened here is not easy to live with."

EU countries must be prepared to stop crypto mining this winter as the continent faces an energy crisis, the European Commission has warned. "Care must be taken to use only the most energy-efficient versions of the technology," a new document says. Criticism is reserved for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin that rely on a Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism — with this technology described as "relatively outdated." It comes as countries prepare for blackouts linked to supply issues following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. EU member states are being urged "to implement targeted and proportionate measures to lower the electricity consumption of miners." Brussels also says Ethereum's Merge shows the crypto world can be greener.

The excitement surrounding Aptos was palpable — with some in the crypto industry proclaiming that this new blockchain could be a "Solana killer." But despite this network being four years in the making, it's had a very shaky start indeed… for multiple reasons. While developers said it would be able to handle 100,000 transactions per second, it's currently processing four. There are concerns about token distribution, with 49% allocated to developers and private investors. It also achieved a larger valuation than Uniswap Labs — even before the mainnet launched. Aptos tokens began trading in the early hours of Wednesday — and as of 9am London time, CoinMarketCap data shows APT had fallen 11%, trading at $7.45.

Walmart's global chief technology officer has declared that "crypto will become an important part" of how we shop in the future. Speaking to Yahoo! Finance, Suresh Kumar predicted that we will soon see a lot of disruption in terms of the payment methods used by consumers. Giving the strongest hint yet that the world's biggest retailer may soon start accepting digital assets, he added: "The role of crypto is going to continue to play a very important role in that. And obviously, we want to be there where the customer really needs us to be." We already know that Walmart is bullish when it comes to the potential of the metaverse — it filed a flurry of trademark applications related to virtual worlds last year.