FT Cryptofinance: The hunt for do Kwon goes worldwide

Hello and welcome to this week's edition of the FT Cryptofinance Newsletter, in which we will concentrate on developments in the search for Terra boss Do Kwon.

When the collapse of Terra's stablecoin began to make headlines in May, I think it is fair to say that not many people outside the niche sphere knew who was do Kwon. Well, a 40-billion dollar collapse later, and the spirit behind the unstable Terra Stable Cooin has achieved worldwide shame.

At the beginning of this month, South Korea Interpol asked to publish a Red Notice against Do Kwon, which serves as an appeal to the global law enforcement authorities to arrest the Terra boss. The Red Notice has increased the pressure on Kwon, who has now developed from its everyday, troubled crypto manager into a notorious figure that has attracted the attention of one of the most powerful personalities in Europe.

"The Evolution [of Crypto] was stormy. It went from this kind of cultural hype, which was promoted by libertarian and by Satoshi Nakamoto in his wisdom and complete anonymity, to this tool, which is now accepted by the PayPals, Visas and MasterCards of this world and that was abused by - whether it was Terra or Luna - but Mr. Kwon, who is on the run, ”said Christine Lagarde, the President of the European Central Bank, this week.

It wasn't always like that for Kwon. He was a co-founder of Terraform Labs, the company behind the Stablecoin Terrausd, which was to expand the boundaries of crypto and financial innovations. With exactly the right mix of algorithmic coding, stable coins could be linked to a currency like the dollar without having to support them by hard assets.

This naturally proved to be music in the ears of the long-established ideological core of libertarian, people who appreciated the idea of a really decentralized alternative to the corrupt world of Fiat currencies. As such, many-including Luna-Tic boss Mike Novogratz-greeted Kwon as one of theirs. The Galaxy Digital CEO even showed a Luna tattoo in a tweet that was posted in January, months before the Terrausd sister project collapsed.

kwon was lightly regarding his newly discovered attention from the police. He insists that he is not on the run and has nothing to hide. In a recent tweet that offered the Terra boss to "get something to eat", Kwon simply replied: "Buy?"

to be fair to Kwon, he showed his location as a Singapore at the beginning of the week. The city -state police said he is not in jurisdiction.

"It is difficult to find and arrest someone. The situation changes every time. We do our best to grasp it," said the public prosecutor's office of the Seoul Süd district this week.

What's next on the hunt for do Kwon? Mail me your thoughts to scott.chipolina@ft.com .

Weekly highlights

• When you have read the newsletter from last week, you know that I have asked whether the series of crypto withdrawals will continue in the C-Suite after Jesse Powell has resigned from octopus as Chief Executive. It turned out that it was. Only this week the battered CEO from Celsius, Alex Mashinsky, resigned. The President of FTX.US, Brett Harrison, also announced that he would step down and switch to an advisory function. This is followed by Sam Trabucco's announcement last month that he will resign as a co-CEO of Alameda Research.

• chipotle is enthusiastic about the Ethereum merge. No, seriously, that's what it is really excited. The popular fast food chain offers 99.95 percent discount on your steak bowl if you pay with ether, since the switch from Ethereum to a proof-of-stake blockchain could reduce energy consumption by 99.95 percent. If you visit, .

• The StableCoin emittent Circle has announced a partnership with the RobinHood stock exchange platform, which enables customers to buy and sell the USDC stable on Robinhood Crypto and Robinhood Wallet. Jeremy Allaire, Chief Executive by Circle, said that he is looking forward to "web3 together to present a new generation of technically well -experienced and digitally networked people".

Soundbite of the week: Bitcoin is. . . soothing?

Bitcoins Favorite Senator Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming appeared on Natalie Brunells hard money podcast for chatting Bitcoin. Here is what the Republican Senator said:

"I think it's great that it cannot be stopped, especially because I am worried about our public debt, I'm worried about inflation.. Therefore, it is actually calming to know that Bitcoin is there."

for a helpful, calming context: Bitcoin has lost more than 50 percent of its value this year.

data-mining

One of the central claims of the proponents of cryptocurrency is the ability of the industry to achieve those - and to grant them financial freedom - which the traditional banking system has not supported. Against this background, the latest data published by the blockchain analysis company Chainalysis offer valuable insights into the overall share of the transaction value of cryptocurrencies that the region receives.

East Asia in particular has recorded a significant decline in the transaction value since the beginning of 2020. Elsewhere, Subsahara Africa has practically no incoming crypto value for more than three years.