South Korean prosecutors are moving to freeze assets linked to crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon, who is seeking to arrest him on suspicion of violating securities laws.
Prosecutors sent requests to crypto exchanges KuCoin and OKX to freeze a total of 3,313 bitcoins, worth $67 million (roughly Rs. 546 crore) at current prices, that were moved from wallets linked to CoinDesk, Kwon’s Luna Foundation Guard. Reported on Tuesday. An official from the Seoul South District Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the CoinDesk story while declining to comment further.
Representatives for KuCoin and OKX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
South Korea has sought Interpol’s help in tracking down Kwon, whose Terra stablecoin ecosystem collapsed in May, wiping out an estimated $60 billion (roughly Rs. 4,89,000 crore). Kwon’s whereabouts remain unknown after the Singaporean government said earlier this month that he was no longer there.
On Monday, Kwon, 31, said on Twitter that he was “making zero effort to hide,” adding that “I go for walks and to the malls,” without revealing his current location.
According to researcher CryptoQuant, a new wallet address owned by LFG was created on September. 15. Subsequently, a total of 3,310 bitcoins were moved from the wallet to KuCoin and OKX, CryptoQuant said. South Korean lawyers said on September 14 that a court had issued a warrant for Kwon’s arrest.
“CryptoQuant has specified new bitcoin addresses owned by LFG based on transaction patterns, nearby flows and content non-public information,” the researcher said in an emailed statement.
The TerraUSD stablecoin’s peg to the US dollar was maintained largely through a complex mix of algorithms and trader incentives that included its sister token Luna. Earlier in the year, Kwon founded LFG as an additional security, creating a reserve of crypto that could be deployed in times of stress.
Between January and March, LFG bought $3.5 billion in bitcoins, according to blockchain forensics firm Elliptic. Those measures finally proved futile in early May, with both Kwon and LFG saying they had spent almost all of their reserves trying to stabilize TerraUSD and Luna.
