Key Takeaways
- South Korean prosecutors have reportedly requested KuCoin and OKX to freeze $67 million value of Bitcoin related to Do Kwon and LFG. The funds have been allegedly moved to the exchanges shortly after a warrant was issued for Kwon’s arrest.
- The opaque nature of LFG’s exercise has raised suspicions within the cryptocurrency group since Terra collapsed in Might.
- It emerged Monday that Interpol had added Kwon to its crimson discover checklist, however he surfaced on-line to say that he was “making zero effort to cover.”
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Regardless of the quickly intensifying drama surrounding Kwon, the famously outspoken blockchain entrepreneur surfaced on Twitter Monday to say that he was “making zero effort to cover” from authorities.
Kwon Allegedly Moved LFG’s Reserves
South Korean prosecutors are reportedly making efforts to freeze $67 million value of Bitcoin linked to Terra’s needed figurehead, Do Kwon.
The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Workplace has requested KuCoin and OKX to freeze 3,313 Bitcoin that allegedly originated from Terra’s Luna Basis Guard. The prosecutors have claimed that LFG moved the funds to the exchanges on September 15, a day after a Seoul court docket issued a warrant for Kwon’s arrest. Crypto researcher CryptoQuant claimed that the funds got here from LFG, per a CoinDesk Korea report revealed Tuesday. Kwon managed LFG’s fund and made a number of multi-million greenback Bitcoin purchases previous to Terra’s $40 billion collapse in Might.
Whereas the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Workplace had not responded to Crypto Briefing’s request for remark at press time, Bloomberg reported that an official confirmed the information earlier at present. “CryptoQuant specified new Bitcoin addresses owned by LFG primarily based on transaction patterns, adjoining flows and materials private info,” CryptoQuant informed Bloomberg. Notably, neither OKX nor KuCoin is registered in Korea. CoinDesk Korea reported that KuCoin agreed to the prosecutor’s request, however OKX stayed silent.
It’s the newest growth in what’s develop into certainly one of crypto’s wildest sagas because the manhunt for Kwon continues. The prosecutors confirmed that Interpol had added Kwon to its crimson discover checklist early Monday, successfully making the Terraform Labs co-founder a needed fugitive in 195 nations. However, Kwon surfaced on Twitter the identical day to guarantee his followers that he was “making zero effort to cover.” He additionally pointed out that his identify didn’t seem on Interpol’s web site in a potential trace that he didn’t consider the crimson discover had been issued.
LFG’s Opaque Exercise
If the prosecutor’s and CryptoQuant’s findings show to be appropriate, the Bitcoin transfers are more likely to increase but extra suspicions over how Kwon oversaw Terra within the lead-up to and fallout from its implosion. Kwon has made no secret of his brash persona over the previous 12 months, however he and Terraform Labs have been much less upfront in terms of discussing funds.
LFG, a fund launched in January to stabilize UST’s peg to the greenback, collected $3.5 billion value of Bitcoin within the lead-up to Terra’s blow-up. Following the incident, it mentioned that it had spent over $1 billion value of Bitcoin in a last-ditch effort to save lots of UST. Nevertheless, some questioned the declare on the time, and it nonetheless hasn’t supplied any proof of how the funds have been spent 4 months later (given the general public nature of blockchain know-how, LFG might have supplied a paper path of each transaction). LFG’s public Bitcoin pockets currently holds 313 Bitcoin value simply over $6 million, having transacted about 71,000 cash forward of the meltdown.
The prosecutors are in search of to arrest Kwon on allegations of violating capital markets regulation, and so they’ve additionally been investigating him for a slew of different costs similar to tax fraud and operating a Ponzi scheme. Whereas it’s unclear what the three,313 Bitcoin was for use for, onlookers have speculated since Might that Kwon hid a few of LFG’s reserves for his personal private escape fund. If Kwon is discovered to have siphoned funds from LFG, it’s more likely to strengthen the prosecutors’ case within the courtroom.
Terra Chief’s Twitter Antics Proceed
Whereas the prosecutors have maintained all through this month that Kwon is hiding from the authorities, the 31-year-old’s on-line exercise paints a special image. Kwon has solely appeared on his favourite medium of communication, Twitter, in brief bursts since Might, however he’s all the time conveyed a way of calm to his followers.
When addressing the information of the Interpol crimson discover Monday, Kwon engaged with a number of Crypto Twitter personalities, saying that he was “writing code” in his lounge and “[goes] on walks and malls.” He went so far as inviting one dealer to go to him and joked about his present monetary state of affairs. “I’m a bit brief lately,” he wrote.
Kwon’s newest devil-may-care tweets could appear off-key on condition that he’s going through the prospect of extradition and a number of legal costs, however his tone has not often been certainly one of solemnity. On Might 8, when Kwon had reached the peak of his infamy and cracks have been beginning to seem in UST and LUNA’s flawed design, Kwon took a equally assertive stance to calm the Terra group’s nerves as UST fell under its greenback peg. “Anon, you would hearken to CT influensooors about UST depegging for the 69th time… Or you would keep in mind they’re all now poor, and go for a run as an alternative… Wyd,” he wrote. UST misplaced its peg to the greenback once more hours later and LUNA had plummeted to nearly zero inside just a few days. Put one other method, simply because Kwon is telling his followers that he has nothing to fret about, that doesn’t imply there’s not one other catastrophe coming his method someday quickly.
Disclosure: On the time of writing, the creator of this piece owned ETH and a number of other different cryptocurrencies.
