Do Kwon Arrested, Montenegrin Officials Say

Do Kwon, founder of the now collapsed Terraform Labs, has been arrested in Montenegro, local officials say.

Montenegrin police have detained the disgraced entrepreneur at the Podgorica airport, the country’s minister of interior, Filip Adzic, tweeted. 

“The former ‘cryptocurrency king,’ who is behind losses of more than $ 40 billion, was detained at the Podgorica airport with falsified documents,” Adzic wrote.

The tweet has since been retweeted by the country’s prime minister, Dritan Abazovic. Local news site Vijesti has also confirmed the reports. 

Following his arrest, the price of LUNA immediately dipped by 8.2%. It is now trading at $1.33, according to information on CoinGecko.

Montenegrin officials directed Blockworks to Mr. Adzic’s Twitter account for further information.

The depeg of the TerraUSD stablecoin resulted in a more than $40 billion loss by crypto investors and institutions.

Unlike stablecoins such as USDC, USDT and DAI, TerraUSD was not backed by reserves and maintained its peg to the dollar through an algorithm, which ultimately failed.

Do Kwon was charged by the SEC for ​​“orchestrating” cryptocurrency securities fraud earlier this year. 

He is also sought after by government officials in South Korea, who have issued a warrant for his arrest. Kwon is under investigation by Singaporean officials as well.

Updated March 23, 2023 at 11:26 am ET: Added additional context throughout.
Updated March 23, 2023 at 1:32 pm ET: Added response from Montenegro government official.

---

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

• The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
• 0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.
• Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
• Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
• The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
• Lightspeed: All things Solana.
• Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.