Terraform Labs Co-Founder Do Kwon Pleads Not Guilty to Fraud in U.S. Court
Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs, appeared in a U.S. court on January 2, pleading not guilty to fraud charges tied to the $40 billion collapse of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin.
Facing nine charges, including wire and securities fraud, Kwon remains in custody without bail as he awaits trial in New York.
Kwon’s legal troubles began with his arrest in Montenegro in March 2023 for attempting to travel on a fake passport. A months-long battle over his extradition followed, with both the U.S. and South Korea seeking to prosecute him for fraud. Montenegro ultimately approved his transfer to the U.S. after rejecting Kwon’s appeal to remain, citing less severe penalties in his home country.
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Prosecutors allege Kwon misled investors about the capabilities of the Terra blockchain, contributing to its dramatic collapse. His case is being handled by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office, which previously prosecuted FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried. In addition to the criminal case, Kwon and Terraform Labs were found liable in a civil fraud lawsuit, leading to a $4.47 billion settlement.
With a follow-up hearing scheduled for January 8, Kwon now faces one of the most high-profile cryptocurrency trials in recent history.
Alexander Stefanov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coinspress and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
