From Crypto King to Courtroom Clown, Do Kwon Extradited to the USA

If you're a crypto OG, or at least were around in 2020 and 2021, you likely remember this name - Do Kwon, the infamous leader behind Terra Luna and the $LUNA / $UST fiasco. For some background, the Terra ecosystem's downfall began in May 2022 when TerraUSD (UST) lost its critical $1 peg, and on May 9, 2022, UST began slipping from its dollar value, falling as low as $0.67. Today, TerraUSD is likely around $0.

Mr. Kwon got in trouble and got himself in jail. Now, Montenegro has approved the extradition of the once-deemed "cryptocurrency king" to the United States.

As one does, Kwon was initially arrested in March 2023 at Podgorica Airport in Montenegro, attempting to board a flight to Dubai using fake Costa Rican travel documents. After that, he served a four-month prison sentence for passport fraud and was moved to a Shelter for Foreigners while awaiting extradition.

Kwon was first charged in the U.S. with fraud by federal prosecutors in New York over a $40 billion crash of Terraform Labs' crypto and platform where retail and users lost millions. Now, Kwon faces serious fraud charges in the United States, with allegations including
misleading investors about the stability of TerraUSD, engineering a multi-billion dollar fraud involving crypto asset securities, and misrepresenting the potential value of his crypto tokens. 

Do Kwon will likely suffer the same fate as one Sam Bankman-Fried, the infamous CEO of the failed FTX crypto exchange. Ironically, Do Kwon accused SBF of market manipulation following the Terra Luna collapse and prosecutors were investigating potential links between SBF and the Terra ecosystem's downfall. Both were seen as prominent crypto entrepreneurs who met similar falls from grace as they were considered next-generation leaders in the crypto industry only a few years ago, with Kwon studying computer science at Stanford and SBF, a physics graduate from MIT. How the mighty have fallen.