Do Kwon of Terra: ‘It Was Never Really About Money or Fame or Success’

Do Kwon, cofounder of Terraform Labs, discusses the charges against him, gives a message to Terra victims, answers allegations about potential fraud and non-transparent business practices, and much more. 

Show highlights:

• whether Do finds the charges based on the Capital Markets Act legitimate 
• why he doesn’t want to discuss his location
• whether the South Korean government is lying about the accusations against him
• what happened with the BTC held by the Luna Foundation Guard
• whether Do regrets being so arrogant in his tweets
• what he would say to the people who lost huge amounts of money in Terra or family members of people who committed suicide due to its collapse
• the decision to set Anchor’s yield near 20% 
• why Terra had a large SDT pre-mine that was not proactively disclosed
• whether Do’s actions show he didn’t think that the algorithmic mechanism was sufficient to keep UST pegged to the dollar
• whether Terraform Labs cashed out $2.7 billion using Degenbox
• why there were no disclosures about Chai terminating its agreement with Terra
• why the Terra blockchain went through a hard fork without a public discussion
• the failure of the basis cash stablecoin, also worked on by Do Kwon
• whether an algorithmic stablecoin can work
• the week of the UST depeg and what happened to the funds held by LFG
• where the 3 million Luna unlocked per month by Project Dawn went
• when the LFG will return funds to UST holders
• what Do would do differently if he had the chance to go back

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Episode Links

Do Kwon:

• Twitter

Previous Coverage of Unchained on Do Kwon and Terra:

• How Will the Legal Case Against Do Kwon Play Out in South Korea?
• Do Kwon Is Backing UST With Bitcoin – And Here’s What Else He Is Building
• The Legal and Regulatory Fallout From Terra’s Collapse: Who Will Pay?
• The Chopping Block: Does the New Terra Have Any Chance?
• Hester Peirce’s Former Counsel on Terra 2.0, XRP and a Bitcoin Spot ETF
• Why Terra Collapsed and Whether an Algo Stablecoin Can Ever Succeed

Devastating Stories

• One man commits suicide
• Fat Man Terra’s thread with several stories

SDT pre-mine

• CoinDesk Korea article

Anchor yield

• JTBC article reporting core devs wanted a lower yield

Chai 

• WSJ article
• Do’s tweets about Chai:
  • 2.5 million users
  • Tweet in May 2021
  • Tweet in May 2021 #2
  • Tweet in January 2021

Abracadabra Degenbox

• $2.7 billion cash out
• TFL Exit Liquidity dashboard on Dune

Project Dawn

• Launch
• The Defiant article

Basis Cash

• CoinDesk article

Luna Foundation Guard

• Ergo-BTC on-chain evidence of more than 313 BTC
• Dumps BTC
• LFG postpones compensation

Allegations against Do Kwon

• SBS news reporting Do moved funds to the Virgin Islands.
• Seoul Police Probe Allegation of Embezzlement by Terraform Staff
• South Korea Launches Investigation into Company Behind Luna Crypto Crash
• Class action against Do Kwon
• Was LUNA a Security?
• Korean prosecutors are looking into Terra

• Red Notice
• “Not on the run”
• Kwon’s Passport

SEC Actions Against Terra

• SEC Investigating UST Stablecoin Blowup in Fresh Threat to Terra
• Terraform Labs Loses US Appeal over SEC Subpoena

 * Quick correction*

 At 7min 18sec, I misspoke, the Korean government posted a pdf for Do Kwon’s passport revocation, not his arrest warrant.