Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his actions that led to the 2022 collapse of TerraUSD and LUNA, causing about $40 billion in investor losses.

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer imposed the sentence on Thursday, exceeding prosecutors’ 12-year recommendation but below the 25-year maximum.

“To the next Do Kwon, if you commit fraud, you will lose your liberty for a long time as you will here,” Engelmayer said to Kwon during the sentencing hearing, as reported by Inner City Press.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

Kwon must also forfeit $19 million and faces possible South Korean charges after serving half his term.

Ahead of the hearing, several investors submitted impact statements to the court detailing the extent of their financial losses.

One user who invested $250,000 in UST in the Anchor Protocol to earn yield, sold his holdings after the UST depeg at around 5 to 8 cents.

“My financial damages were life-changing. I lost the equivalent of several years of income in a matter of days,” said one of the victims. 

LUNA, the native token of Terra 2.0 that was launched after the original Terra chain’s collapse, dropped 10% after the news despite rallying 120% in the week leading up to Kwon’s sentencing hearing. 

“The new LUNA has no relationship to the original Terra economy, most newcomers don’t realize this,” noted one user on X.