Prosecutors freeze 39-billion-won worth of Bitcoin held by Do Kwon

Finance

Published: 28 Sep. 2022, 16:17 Updated: 28 Sep. 2022, 19:10

Prosecutors freeze 39-billion-won worth of Bitcoin held by Do Kwon

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Korean prosecutors have frozen around 39-billion-won ($27 million) worth of Bitcoin believed to be held by Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon.

Local media, including Chosun Biz, reported Tuesday that prosecutors froze 38.8-billion-won worth of virtual assets held by Kwon.

They sought cooperation from two crypto exchanges in the process of tracking Kwon’s virtual assets inside and outside of Korea, but only one cooperated.

After an arrest warrant was issued for Kwon on Sept. 14, around 3,313 Bitcoin held by him were transferred to overseas crypto exchanges KuCoin and OKX.

OKX did not reply to prosecutors’ request to freeze Kwon’s Bitcoin.

The total holding of his Bitcoin is estimated to be worth around 95 billion won.

Kwon and Daniel Shin are the masterminds behind TerraUSD and Luna, which lost almost its entire value in a $40 billion crash in May.

Interpol issued a red notice for Kwon's arrest, according to prosecutors Monday. They said Kwon is not cooperating with the investigation of the collapse of Terra coins and that he may have been on the run when he went to Singapore in April right before the crash.

Kwon’s whereabouts are unknown after Singapore’s government said that he is no longer in the country earlier this month.

On Tuesday, Kwon repeated on Twitter that he is “making zero effort to hide.” He added, “I go on walks and [to] malls.”

A week earlier, he wrote that he is not “on the run” or anything similar, adding that he is “in full cooperation and we don’t have anything to hide.”

Korean financial authorities said Monday that the Luna Terra incident accelerated the decline of crypto market this year as investors lost faith in virtual assets.

The total market capitalization for virtual assets in Korea was down 58 percent to 23 trillion won in the first half from the second half of last year.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]