Do Kwon, the founder of the controversial cryptocurrencies TerraUSD and Luna that sparked controversy in 2022, has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges in a US court.
The charges stem from the collapse of his digital currency, which lost an estimated $40 billion in 2022.
Kwon, 33, faces nine charges in Manhattan federal court, where prosecutors accuse him of misleading investors and manipulating the market.
According to the charges, Kwon falsely claimed that a computer program called the “Terra Protocol” stabilized TerraUSD, a stablecoin that aims to maintain a stable value at $1.
Prosecutors allege he secretly used a trading firm to inflate the coin’s price in 2021.
By early 2022, the combined value of these tokens had reached $50 billion.
However, when TerraUSD crashed again in May 2022, it rattled the crypto market at large.
Kwon, who was extradited from Montenegro, where he faces separate charges, remains in custody and will return to court on January 8.
