Did Terra founder Do Kwon steal millions of dollars in Bitcoin again?

Did Terra founder Do Kwon steal millions of dollars in Bitcoin again?

Did Do Kwon steal millions of US dollars in Bitcoin again?

The South Korean media is alarmed: Terra founder Do Kwon is said to have stolen millions of US dollars in Bitcoin again. This time it is a significant sum of 5,292 BTC, which already belonged to the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) in 2022.

The LFG was founded as a non-profit organization to strengthen the Terra ecosystem. It managed a large reserve, with the majority invested in Bitcoin. The reserve was actually supposed to be worth ten billion US dollars. But after the cryptocurrency Terra collapsed in May 2022, much of the reserve had to be sold to prevent the ecosystem from collapsing.

At this time there were already suspicions that the LFG leadership might have embezzled funds. A particular Bitcoin address – bc1qnfs8pxqjrqkccd7706sln0r70ekdf7nslgqxkz8aa0j9yfk2980slvvsyq – became the focus of the investigation. This address was considered to be the last LFG wallet with available Bitcoin from the original reserves. On October 3, 2023, approximately 5,292 BTC worth over $160 million were transferred from this address to an unknown wallet.

South Korean news portals such as Digital Asset suspect that Do Kwon may have become active again. The temporal connection between the transaction and the loss of funds due to government intervention suggests this suspicion. However, the question arises as to whether Kwon was actually able to carry out this transaction, as he is currently in Montenegrin custody.

According to Digital Asset, Do Kwon has personal access to the affected blockchain address. This is an account that he opened on the crypto exchange Binance in January 2021. However, it is unclear whether this information is reliable.

The stolen million dollar amount was transferred to the wallet bc1qs6cvad3kx9hn7wn32d0r2rwmpp5htfrpn88h044s42lx552se40q6fqexu, which was apparently created recently. It could be a non-custodial wallet, either created by Do Kwon himself to have better access to the money or to avoid third-party interference. However, it remains unclear whether the wallet actually belongs to Kwon or whether it is being used by another party.

The exact background to this renewed theft of millions of US dollars in Bitcoin remains unclear for the time being. It remains to be seen how the situation develops and whether Do Kwon can be held responsible for the embezzlement.