South Korea Puts Several Employees Of Crypto Firm Terraform Labs On 'No Fly List'

Several employees of South Korea-based Terraform labs, the company behind the stablecoin TerraUSD which collapsed last month and roiled cryptocurrency markets, reportedly cannot leave the country, prosecutors said, as per a Reuters report.

TerraUSD's paired token, Luna, had massively plunged in value last month, sparking a sell-off and igniting a chain reaction that has pushed some major institutions in the crypto sector into severe difficulties. TerraUSD was reportedly meant to be pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar.

An official at South Korea's Supreme Prosecutors¡¯ Office said multiple Terraform Labs staff had been put on a ¡®no-fly¡¯ list. But he declined to be named as is customary in South Korea.

He reportedly added that he could not give further details until after investigations had wrapped up.

A Terraform Labs spokesperson reportedly said in a statement, "We are not aware of the details of the reported ban."

The massive losses associated with the stablecoin also contributed to difficulties at the U.S.-based crypto lender Celsius, which suspended withdrawals this month, and Singapore-based crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, which is considering options including the sale of assets and a bailout by another firm.

Terraform Labs is a crypto fintech firm that is building a decentralized price-stable cryptocurrency that will gain usage as a means of payment at a massive scale through an alliance of large commerce partners across the globe.

Terraform Labs was founded in 2018 by Daniel Shin and Do Kwon. The company is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea.

For the uninitiated, the cryptocurrency Terra Luna had crashed over 99% amid the Terra USD de-pegging fiasco last month.

Reacting to that crash, crypto exchange Binance's billionaire CEO Changpeng Zhao had tweeted that he was "poor again", after the crypto exchange's investments in Terra Luna crashed from $1.6 billion just a month ago to about $2,200 that week. All this came nearly two months after Binance CEO had said that he¡¯s ¡®really not that rich¡¯ after being featured on Fortune magazine¡¯s cover.

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And that¡¯s not all. Blockchain.com¡¯s CEO had said last month that there¡¯s more crypto destruction to come. CEO Peter Smith said, ¡°More pain is coming, more risk will be exposed, but ultimately, it¡¯s a good thing for the decentralized economy.¡±

It seems to be turning true currently, with the crypto market continuing to witness a bloodbath. Bitcoin is already down around 50% this year, and Ethereum has slumped around 70%, whereas Elon Musk¡¯s favourite Dogecoin is down around 60%.

And for the first time since breaching the $1 trillion market value in February last year, the total market capitalisation of all crypto assets fell below that mark in mid-June.

Also Read: Meet The Dutch 'Bitcoin Family' Who Emigrated To 'Bitcoin Heaven' Portugal For Tax-Free Crypto

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