A South Korean man accused of being responsible for the cryptocurrency crisis that cost investors $40bn (£31.8bn) has finally been extradited to the US.
Do Kwon was the president of Terraform, which operated two cryptocurrencies, TerraUSD and Luna, both of which went bankrupt in 2022, causing further declines in the cryptocurrency market.
The US says he is responsible for the coin’s failure and accuses him of “orchestrating a multibillion-dollar crypto securities fraud.”
Kwon fled South Korea after an arrest warrant was issued and ended up in Montenegro, where he is currently being extradited after a long legal battle.
He was previously arrested in March 2023 as he tried to board a flight to Dubai and was found guilty of forging documents in a Montenegrin court.
However, Montenegro does not have extradition treaties with the United States or South Korea, so it is unclear whether he will face criminal proceedings in the United States, and South Korea is also seeking his extradition.
Kwon’s extradition to the United States brings to an end a legal process that has lasted more than 18 months.
Montenegro’s Ministry of Justice approved the extradition in early December.
Dokwon also claimed to have agreed.
Kwon’s company, Terraform Labs, rose to widespread prominence in 2021 when its coins Luna and TerraUSD exploded in popularity.
Luna’s fans became known as “Lunatics” and Kwon was referred to as their “King”.
However, despite the huge amount of money poured into the coin, Terraform Labs crashed catastrophically on May 9, 2022, losing over 99% of its value in 48 hours.
Investors feared something similar would happen to them and scrambled to take their money away from other cryptocurrencies, causing the entire sector to plummet in value.
It is estimated that the so-called ‘crypto crash’ has caused losses of $400bn (£318bn).
Bitcoin was one of the assets affected, but its value has since increased significantly, reaching over $100,000 per coin at one point in December.
Terraform Labs ultimately filed for bankruptcy in the US in January 2024.
