A US court has ruled that Jump Crypto, which has been identified as a “third party” in the SEC’s ongoing case against Terraform Labs, may provide certain information to the court in confidence, according to a November 28 order.
The SEC in February charged Terraform Labs and its founder and former CEO, Do Kwon. The regulator alleged that Terraform Labs and Kwon offered and sold unregistered securities and engaged in fraud, raising billions of dollars in the process. The associated stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST), lost almost all of its value in May 2022. The stablecoin, now under the ticker USTC, is currently valued at just $0.04.
Judge Jed S. Rakoff clarified that the court, in its sole discretion, has the authority to make these records public in the future. Should this happen, Jump Crypto’s legal team will be notified, giving them the opportunity to raise any objections.
Jump’s possible role in TerraUSD’s collapse
Jump Crypto is not a defendant in the case against Terraform Labs. However, the SEC believes that Jump played a significant role in the collapse of the UST stablecoin.
An October letter from Terraform Labs’ defense outlines these allegations. In its charges, the SEC alleged that when UST first deviated from dollar parity in May 2021, Terraform Labs allegedly orchestrated a scheme in which Jump Crypto would purchase “substantial quantities” of the distressed stablecoin to artificially inflate its price. The SEC also claimed that the second depeg, which took place in May 2022, did not allow for such a recovery due to a lack of options similar to the Jump Crypto deal.
Terraform Labs has denied these allegations. It said Jump Crypto’s trading activities did not lead to UST’s recovery in 2021 and claimed data would support this claim. It also claimed that the May 2022 depeg was the result of deliberate attempts to short UST and said it was trying to combat these actions with “a direct, public intervention.”
The post that Jump Crypto was allowed to provide certain information confidentially in the SEC’s case against Terraform Labs first appeared on CryptoSlate.