The collapse of Do Kwon and formerly LUNA: known
$LUNC


- born in Seoul in 1991
- top student, attends Daewon Foreign Language High School
- moves to the US and gets into Stanford
- works as software engineer at Microsoft
- returns to South Korea
- founds Anyfi, a P2P mesh networking startup

2018–2021: Terraform Labs arc

- cofounds Terraform Labs in 2018 with Daniel Shin
- launches Terra blockchain and LUNA token
- raises over $200M from VCs

2020–2022: UST and rapid growth

- launches TerraUSD (UST), an algorithmic stablecoin
- UST uses a burn-mint mechanism with LUNA
- Anchor Protocol offers ~19.5% APY on UST deposits
- LUNA reaches around $116 in April 2022

May 2022: the collapse

- over $2B UST withdrawn from Anchor
- liquidity removed from Curve pools
- UST loses its dollar peg
- Luna Foundation Guard sells Bitcoin reserves to defend it
- reserves are exhausted
•UST falls to fractions of a dollar
- around $40B in market value is liquidated
- >1 million investors affected

March 2023: arrest

- arrested in Montenegro
- attempted to travel using a forged passport
- sentenced to prison in Montenegro
- extradition battle begins between US and South Korea

2024: escalation

- Terraform Labs files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
- US jury finds Terraform Labs and Do Kwon guilty of securities fraud
- civil penalties exceed $4.5B
- Montenegro approves extradition to the US

2025: the sentence

- pleads guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy
- admits misleading investors about UST stability
- agrees to forfeiture of $19M
- 15 years in federal prison
- judge calls it a fraud of generational scale

Terra remains one of the biggest collapses in crypto