Today in crypto, Do Kwon may enter a change of plea at a Tuesday hearing. Willy Woo compares Bitcoin’s corporate adoption to gold’s path before 1971, and Samson Mow expects ETH investors to rotate back to Bitcoin as ETH climbs.
Do Kwon to change plea in criminal case at Tuesday conference
A federal judge overseeing the case against Do Kwon has scheduled a Tuesday conference at which the Terraform Labs co-founder “may enter a change of plea.”
In a Monday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered the parties to appear in court on Tuesday, which could suggest that Kwon was preparing to change his plea for some or all of his charges.
The Terraform co-founder initially pleaded not guilty to nine felony counts in January after a monthslong extradition court battle in Montenegro ended with his removal to the United States.
“[T]he defendant should be prepared to give a narrative allocution that incorporates all elements of the offense(s) to which the defendant is pleading guilty,” said Engelmayer. “In the interest of clarity and efficiency, the Court encourages counsel to assist the defendant in writing an allocution that can be read in open court during the plea proceeding.”
Kwon was indicted in March 2023 for charges including securities fraud, market manipulation, money laundering and wire fraud related to his role at Terraform. He was allegedly responsible for contributing to the crash of the Terra ecosystem, which wiped out $40 billion in investor assets.
Bitcoin’s corporate boom raises “Fort Knox” nationalization concerns
Corporate crypto treasuries have surged past $100 billion, raising concerns among analysts that the United States may one day nationalize some of these holdings in a move reminiscent of the gold standard era.
Corporate crypto treasuries have surpassed $100 billion of digital asset holdings, with Bitcoin (BTC) treasury firms amassing 791,662 BTC worth roughly $95 billion by the end of July, representing around 3.98% of the circulating supply.
The growing corporate holdings may present a new centralized point of vulnerability for Bitcoin, which may see the world’s first cryptocurrency follow the same “nationalization path” as gold in 1971, according to crypto analyst Willy Woo.
“If the US dollar is structurally getting weak and China is coming in, it’s a fair point that the US might do an offer to all the treasury companies and centralize where it could be then put into a digital form, not create a new gold standard,” Woo said during a panel discussion at Baltic Honeybadger 2025, adding:
“You could then rug it like happened in 1971. And it’s all centralized around the digital Bitcoin. The whole history repeats again back to the beginning.”
In 1971, US President Richard Nixon ended the Bretton Woods system, suspending the dollar’s convertibility into gold and abandoning the fixed $35-per-ounce rate, effectively ending the gold standard.
Ethereum bag holders will rotate back to Bitcoin: Samson Mow
Bitcoin pioneer Samson Mow predicts Ethereum investors will switch back to Bitcoin once ETH prices get high enough, potentially reversing a five-week surge in Ether.
However, historical market cycle patterns could indicate otherwise.
“Most ETH holders have a lot of BTC (ICO/insiders) and they are rotating that BTC into ETH to pump it on new narratives (Ethereum Treasury co’s),” said the CEO of Bitcoin adoption firm JAN3 on Sunday.
He added that once Ether (ETH) is high enough, “they’ll dump their ETH, creating new generational bagholders, and then rotate the gains back into BTC.”
“No one wants ETH in the long run,” the Bitcoin (BTC) maximalist said.
Mow, who has repeatedly ridiculed altcoins, added that it will be “challenging” for ETH to break all-time highs “because the closer you reach that psychological level, the stronger the drive to sell,” describing it as a “Bagholder’s Dilemma.”
