As of Sunday, Do Kwon, the disgraced co-founder of the Terra ecosystem which collapsed dramatically in May and for whom the Singapore Police Force had issued an arrest warrant, is no longer in the country.
Last Monday, Kwon and five others were named in an arrest order issued by South Korean prosecutors. He is largely responsible for creating two cryptocurrencies whose stunning demise in May shook the global crypto markets.
According to the Singapore Police Force:
“The SPF will assist the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) within the ambit of our domestic legislation and international obligations. Do Kwon is currently not in Singapore.”
The blockchain platform Terraform Labs, which Kwon co-founded, has been accused of fraud by its investors following the company’s demise.
The Seoul prosecutor’s office has claimed since at least the middle of September that he and the others accused of having violated capital markets law were all in Singapore.
Do Kwon tweeted Saturday after local police released a statement claiming he has nothing to conceal and is providing “full cooperation” to government bodies.
The arrest warrant was issued after a lengthy inquiry and public outcry in South Korea following the collapse. According to Elliptic, a blockchain analytics startup, investors in Luna and TerraUSD around the world lost a combined $42 billion.
On Sunday morning, he tweeted, “I am ‘not on the run’ or anything similar,” although he did not specify where he was.
He reassured the government that, “for any agency that has showed interest to communicate,” they would be fully cooperative and wouldn’t be hiding anything.
The company “is defending itself in numerous jurisdictions… and looks forward to clarifying the facts over the next few months,” he said.
Do Kwon: The Sweet-Talking Crypto PersuaderThe 31-year-old Kwon is one of the most vivacious and energetic crypto advocates out there.
In his prime, as co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, he would boldly face skeptics and blow the crypto future out of proportion.
As a result of his persuasive abilities, many people came to believe that the Terra ecosystem was the best place for investment.
Of all the factors contributing to the crypto market decline this year, TerraUSD stands out as particularly crucial.
Stablecoins like TerraUSD (or UST) were created with a single goal in mind: maintaining a constant value of one US dollar per coin – which it had done before its value plummeted this May: first by small sums, and then going into a tailspin.
The high-profile failures of crypto lenders Celsius and Voyager and hedge fund Three Arrows Capital were all precipitated by Terra’s demise, and this event has increased regulatory scrutiny of crypto investments and stablecoins.
Based on reports, the US Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into whether or not Do Kwon’s Terraform Labs broke federal investor protection guidelines in the manner it advertised UST.
Crypto total market cap at $937 billion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com Featured image from Cuteness, Chart: TradingView.com
