🛠 Do Kwon Isn't Done with Crypto: "I am but 31, and I would still love to contribute.”

🎥 Oct 23, 2022 📺 Unchained ⏱ 2m 👁 3710 views

Do Kwon, cofounder of Terraform Labs, discusses the charges against him, gives a message to Terra victims, answers allegations ...

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About Do Kwon

Do Kwon, cofounder of Terraform Labs, pleaded not guilty in a Montenegro court in September 2023 to charges of using forged passports from Belgium and Costa Rica, according to Bloomberg News. His defense lawyer proposed releasing him on bail of 400,000 euros, but the prosecutor objected, arguing Kwon and former CFO Han Chang-jun had financial means and no interest in remaining in Montenegro. Kwon had been arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 after South Korea issued an arrest warrant for him in September 2022. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Terraform Labs and Kwon in February 2023 with defrauding investors, alleging they promoted their crypto by claiming the tokens would increase in value and that Kwon secretly arranged for a third party to purchase massive amounts of TerraUSD (UST) to restore its dollar peg in May 2021, while publicly touting the restoration as a triumph of decentralization. In interviews following the collapse of the Terra ecosystem, Kwon has characterized the event as a "massive market failure" rather than fraud, stating that he believed in the stability of UST and that his statements led users without the tools to understand the complex economic mechanisms to gain confidence in a system that ultimately failed. He has said he went into a "state of shock" when the collapse began and that he tried to help community members find jobs and funding. Kwon has maintained that the Luna Foundation Guard only held 313 Bitcoin and has denied allegations of being on the run, though he has not disclosed his location. He has stated he plans to continue building in crypto, saying, "I am but 31, and I would still love to contribute."

Source: AI-verified profile updated from Do Kwon's recent appearances. Browse all interviews →

Transcript (1 segments)

Do Kwon0:00

One of the things that I hope the next few years would clarify is what happened with Terra. It wasn't a scam, it wasn't a fraud, right? It was a massive market failure. But I think one of the things I want to clarify is, I believed in the need and the viability for decentralized algorithmic stablecoins more than anyone else, and as founders we sometimes have a bias, and in some cases a bias for being bullish. A lot of people say that I'm an idiot for buying Bitcoin right before it was about to crash, but positionally speaking, isn't crypto made better if there are people that just believe in things and are more optimistic than others about how things will pan out and work? I think the most important thing is, we really did try to hold ourselves to a high set of integrity, and now we're starting to make some attempts to provide the right information so people can understand what happened better. We are a pretty small organization at this point, so sometimes we won't be able to answer everything because there's too many accusations, some without any thoughtful basis. But we are trying our best. When it comes to my life, I am only 31 and I would still love to contribute. It is going to be an exciting time because more of the work I'm doing will be coding. I get to do a lot more engineering, which I didn't get to do in 2021 when Terra was exploding, so a lot of my time was spent in calls, meetings, and podcasts. While this is probably the hardest time in my life in terms of work and the challenges we have to work through, it is a refreshing change of pace. If you enjoyed this clip, watch the full episode available now on Unchained.