The creator of the failed stablecoin that kicked off crypto winter is now a wanted man.
On Wednesday, a South Korean court issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon, the co-founder of cryptocurrency company Terraform Labs, for allegedly violating capital markets law. According to Bloomberg, the arrest warrant includes five other individuals.
In May, Do Kwon’s algorithmic stablecoin Terra (UST) set off a domino effect that crashed the cryptocurrency market. UST, which is supposed to always be valued at $1 USD, fell from that pegged amount. Terra, at the time, was one of the biggest stablecoins in crypto with an $18 billion market capitalization. Many crypto users place their funds in stablecoins like Terra, due to their supposedly stable one-to-one valuation alongside the US dollar, unlike other risky cryptocurrencies that greatly fluctuate in value.
Attempts to correct the Terra valuation and peg it back to $1 fell short and UST’s value continued to tank until it became worth only pennies. Terra’s « sister » cryptocurrency, LUNA, which was once valued at more than $100 just earlier this year, quickly fell in price too, becoming essentially worthless at less than a penny per token. It didn’t take long for the reverberations to be felt across the crypto markets with most tokens taking a big hit in the following months. Crypto lending firms like Celsius and crypto hedge funds like Three Arrows Capital would soon face liquidity problems and, in some cases, bankruptcy as a result of the Terra/Luna crash.
Do Kwon, in an attempt to course correct, soon re-launched Luna, but that attempt failed too. The crypto founder, who would regularly tweet and talk to crypto press, has been fairly silent on the issue since.
According to Bloomberg, Do Kwon’s partner, Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin, was raided by prosecutors back in July as part of an investigation into the alleged violations. All six people named in the warrant, including Do Kwon, are currently located in Singapore. According to The Financial Times, authorities are seeking international cooperation in an effort to extradite Do Kwon, though the two countries do not have a bilateral extradition treaty.
