Do Kwon, the Man behind the Doomed LUNA, Faces An Arrest Warrant in S. Korea

Do Kwon, the co-founder of Terraform Labs, a blockchain platform, is the man who developed UST, the once third-ranking stablecoin, and LUNA, its sister token. Kwon was even once dubbed as the "Elon Musk in South Korea". However, the horrible LUNA disaster in this May still remains vivid til this day​​. Price history shows that the token, once priced as high as 116 USD, went straight down to being zero in value after what happened in May.

LUNA Drops as Do Kown Faces An Arrest Warrant

On Sept 14, charges have been made against a total of six people, including Do Kwon, who are accused of fraud by investors, and suspected of violating the Capital Market Act, by the Department of Prosecutor's Office of Seoul's Southern District in charge of financial and securities crimes. An arrest warrant was consequently issued by a South Korean court. According to Coinbase, the price of LUNA plummeted sharply in response, with a decline of more than 40%. As of writing, LUNA’s price saw a slight recovery back to 0.000293 USD, yet its decline within one week was still as high as 44.03%.

At present, Do Kwon is in Singapore and has no attempt to return to South Korea. He claimed that he had left for Singapore back in May before the LUNA collapse, so this is not a "runaway", and his trip has nothing to do with it. Kwon also made a response to Korea's attempt to have him arrested by saying, "life is long".

On the other hand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea requested the six people to return their passports immediately.

Dwon: Once Famous in Crypto Market

Terraform Labs used to be a popular crypto platform before this May. UST was once the third hottest stablecoin in the market.

Dwon claimed to have majored in computer science at Stanford in the US. After graduation, he went to Apple Inc. And Microsoft where he worked as an engineer, and lived in Silicon Valley. In 2018, he founded crypto platform Terraform Labs in Singapore. Just one week prior to the LUNA collapse this May, Dwon secretly and quietly terminated the business of Terraform Labs in South Korea and moved to Singapore til this day.

LUNA 2.0: Die Trying or A Distraction?

Dwon has been swamped in troubles since the collapse. First, the agency in South Korea that investigates cybercrime asked all crypto exchanges within the borders to freeze the funds of Luna Foundation Guard, an affiliated company. Then, the Financial Services Commission, the country's regulator, got involved in the incident, and accelerated the implementation of laws such as Digital Asset Basic Act.

Meanwhile, Dwon announced a so-called plan, one week after the collapse, aiming to bring Terra back to life by creating a new blockchain to re-issue LUNA. He also vowed to investors on social platform, "I am resolved to work with every one of you to weather this crisis, and we will build our way out of this."

However, the plan didn’t go as planned just as Fazzaco has predicted in an article: "...maybe the token still has the potential to bounce back after this meltdown. From what we are looking at, however, that seems to be a very unlikely event." Now, it seems that the government of South Korea has finally made up its mind to put him behind bars, after so many Korean investors lost all their money and attempted suicide.

Crypto Fever among Young South Koreans

As mentioned in Fazzaco's Cryptocurrency Regulations World Map - South Korea​, the country has a booming crypto trading market.

With a population of only 51 million, it accounts for 30% of the world's cryptocurrency transactions, and young people are the main force. According to statistics from South Korea's FSC, there are more than three million young people under the age of 40 who trade digital coins in the country. In other words, one out of every five South Korean young people is investing in cryptocurrencies. The LUNA coin plummeted as close to 99% as zero, which directly cut off the livelihood of many investors.

On June 30, 2022, a car was retrieved from the sea in South Korea. There were three bodies, highly rotten, found inside. Forensics have shown that one of the bodies was Cho Yu-na, a ten-year-old girl, who died along with her parents. Cho's family had over 150 million Korean won in debt due to LUNA collapse.

Maybe it's time to make the "big guy in the crypto" who has shattered the hopes of countless people pay the price.