Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon was earlier this month flagged by Singaporean authorities to be missing from his home, where it is said he had been residing. The reports came following an unravelling in South Korea as authorities try to make sense of the collapse of the Terra ecosystem. Local news outlets previously reported that warrants had been issued against five other individuals alongside the crypto developer.
Red Notice issued for Do Kwon, his residing location remains unknown
In what is the latest development, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) yesterday issued a red alert notice for the arrest of Kwon, according to a report from Bloomberg. The move comes after a request put in by local authorities last Monday in their search for the Terra co-founder. South Korea already issued a warrant of arrest for Do Kwon, whose exit from the country they believe indicates circumstantial evidence of escape.
Last week, Do Kwon denied being on the run and assured readiness to cooperate with the authorities. However, prosecutors in the country are seemingly not convinced, even requesting his passport to be revoked. The Terra founder insisted yesterday again that he is not on the run and hasn’t made any efforts to flee, for that matter. The wanted Terra co-founder left a casual comment that he has been spending time writing code in his house in response to a tweet from pseudonymous trader, Trader SZ, who inquired about his whereabouts.
“I’m making zero effort to hide I go on walks and malls, no way none of CT hasn’t run into me the past couple weeks,” he said in a Monday tweet.
Though he didn’t divulge his location, the South Korean native didn’t seem to be stewed a bit by the latest turn of events. Terra and Do Kwon have been in the headlines since May, following the Terra ecosystem’s crash. South Korean authorities raided several office locations associated with both as part of an investigation for purported capital market laws violation.
It has since come out that Do Kwon carried out questionable transactions shortly after reports of arrest warrant issuance by local prosecutors. CoinDesk Korea reported earlier today that a sum of 1,354 BTC left the Luna Foundation Guard’s Binance wallet to Kucoin between Sept 15 and Sept 18. Another sum of 1,959 BTC was sent to the OKX exchange.
The Luna Foundation Guard was formed in Singapore as a non-profit organization backing the Terra ecosystem and its assets. Bloomberg reported that prosecutors asked the respective exchanges to freeze these assets, worth approximately $66.59 million at the time. Only Kucoin responded in time to freeze the received BTC sum.
Terra Classic (LUNC) gains 40% propelled by Binance’s LUNC burn initiative
Efforts to revive Terra have continued, albeit slowly, months after the project’s fallout. Binance officially initiated its burn mechanism for the bloated LUNC supply that will see trading fees, charged by the exchange on LUNC’s spot and margin pairs against BUSD and USDT, burnt. The exchange noted in the Monday post that trading commissions on the listed pairs would regularly be converted to the native token and automatically sent to the burn address.
The transfer will be done on Mondays at 00:00:00 UTC, and the report on the burning activity updated on Tuesdays. The first burn will be held on Oct 2, involving trading fees charged starting Sept 21. Binance will incur the cost of burning the LUNC tokens.
“The trading experience and liquidity remain the same, and Binance can still contribute to the supply decrease of LUNC, which is what the community wants,” the announcement added.
Terra Classic imposed a burning tax of 1.2% for all on-chain transactions on Sept 20. In response to a question about the implementation of this tax rate on the exchange, Binance chief Changpeng Zhao explained why this proposed plan was ineffective. CZ justified that the previously suggested plan to launch an opt-in transaction burn is not only time-consuming but has also seen resistance from the Terra Classic community.
The exchange shelved the initial opt-in proposal in favor of the new mechanism, whose announcement provided positive sentiment among investors. The LUNC/USD pair was, at writing, spotted trading up 44.15% on the day but the dollar value remains at just a few cents.
Updated to include news of the suspicious transaction involving a total of 3,313 BTC.
