Do Kwon, the founder of the cryptocurrency Luna and the stablecoin TerraUSD, has reportedly been in contact with police after a possible investor in the coin “trespassed” at his home, according to a new report from South Korea’s largest newspaper, The Chosun Ilbo. Crypto News reports the investor lost roughly $1.56 million in the collapse of Luna, a claim Gizmodo could not independently verify.
An unnamed man rang the doorbell to Kwon’s apartment around 6:23 p.m. local time Thursday night, according to Chosun, and Kwon’s wife answered the door. The man reportedly asked something like, “Is your husband home?” and then proceeded to run off.
Luna was worth over $54 as recently as Monday morning, when it was the fourth most popular crypto coin in the world, but plunged below $0.01 on Thursday. The coin has been pulled from major exchanges like Binance and the operation of its blockchain has been halted, making Luna effectively worthless as of Friday.
The unnamed man who arrived at Kwon’s home faces a charge of trespassing because he allegedly entered the apartment complex by slipping through a gap in the apartment building’s common door, according to Chosun. CCTV footage from the incident and surrounding area is reportedly being reviewed.
Police in South Korea could not confirm the suspect was a Luna investor, according to Chosun, but Crypto News reports the man said as much during livestreams on the social media platform afreecaTV. Again, Gizmodo could not confirm the man in the livestream is the same man, and it’s entirely possible that he’s not the one, despite his own claims he was going to turn himself into police.
Whoever this man is, he’s not the only one upset with Do Kwon and the entire Luna community right now. When TerraUSD, a stablecoin meant to maintain a value of $1 through a tricky algorithm and fake digital money printing, became “unpegged” to the dollar over the past weekend, it sent Luna into a death spiral on Tuesday and Wednesday. That domino then knocked over plenty of other crypto coins, causing them to plunge in value over the past week—arguably the worst bloodbath in crypto history. Millions of dollars just evaporated within days.
Strangely, there are still vocal Luna enthusiasts who are convinced the crypto coin can make a comeback, which is perhaps evidence of the “denial” stage of grief. But asking whether Luna can ever recover from $0.00 sounds like people from 1866 asking whether money issued by the Confederacy will make a rebound. It’s not coming back. And if you dumped a bunch of money into Luna, that money is gone for good.
Outside of Luna, much of the cryptocurrency market has made a surprise rebound overnight, with bitcoin currently up 8.3%, ether up 8.1%, and XRP (Ripple) up 18.4% in the past 24 hours. Does that mean it’s safe to put all your money back into crypto? Definitely not. But if you’re still holding your coins in some of the big names like bitcoin you’ve got to be feeling a little less queasy today.
Kwon did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Friday. We’ll update this post if we hear back.
Update, May 16, 7:15 a.m. ET: An unnamed man was questioned by police on Monday at the Seongdong Police Station in Seoul, according to Yonhap News. The news outlet quotes the man as saying he lost somewhere between 2 and 3 billion won, or between $1.5 million and $2.3 million U.S. at the current exchange rate.