Alert from Binance warns users they're buying a fugitive's crypto
Do Kwon, the co-founder of stablecoin TerraUSD, is a wanted man in South Korea. As a result, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange is warning users that it's not responsible for their choice to invest in Do Kwon's token.
Last week, a South Korean court issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon, who's company created the algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD, as well as its sister cryptocurrency, Luna. The failure of the TerraUSD stablecoin created the domino effect that is responsible for this summer's big crypto crash. Prosecutors say Do Kwon is wanted for allegedly violating capital markets law.
However, since that warrant was issued, Do Kwon is nowhere to be found. Do Kown was Originally believed to be in Singapore, but the Singapore Police Force told Reuters this past weekend that the TerraUSD co-founder was no longer in the city-state.
On Saturday, Do Kwon posted a series of tweets in an attempt to address the issues around his current location. While he refused to share even general details of his location, Do Kwon claimed he was not trying to evade arrest.
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"I am not 'on the run' or anything similar — for any government agency that has shown interest to communicate, we are in full cooperation and we don’t have anything to hide," he said in one tweet.
Prosecutors in South Korea disputed these claims the next day, saying Do Kwon was "obviously on the run." According to the Yonhap News Agency, prosecutors asserted that Do Kwon flew to Singapore in late April and shut down the South Korean branch of his company, Terraform Labs, in an effort to "evade investigation."
And things are continuing to escalate for Do Kwon. On Monday, the Financial Times reported that South Korea had asked Interpol to issue a "red notice" for Do Kwon, which would alert law enforcement around the world of the warrant.
While Do Kwon's original stablecoin went up in smoke earlier this year, the crypto founder attempted to bounce back by relaunching the cryptocurrency via a new token known as Terra 2.0. It was quickly listed on major crypto exchanges where users can still trade the token as of the publishing of this article. The warrant issued in South Korea for its founder does not appear to have had an effect on the exchanges, as journalist Jacob Silverman pointed out on Twitter.
However, the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, has taken action...just not by delisting the token. Instead, when users land on Binance's webpage to trade Terra 2.0, a prompt appears on the screen.
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"Please Note: A South Korean court has issued an arrest warrant against the cofounder of Terra 2.0 (LUNA)," reads the message. "Please understand the risks involved and trade with caution. Binance will not be held responsible for any trading losses."
Users are then required to click an "I understand" button.
At the time of publishing, Terra is trading at $2.60, which is down around 40 percent from right before prosecutors issued the arrest warrant for Do Kwon last week.