Alleged cryptocurrency fraudster Do Kwon pleaded not guilty in a New York court on Thursday to US criminal charges related to the collapse of cryptocurrency platform Terra in 2022, following his extradition earlier this week from Montenegro.

The feds hit the disgraced 33-year-old tech entrepreneur with Nine criminal chargesincluding securities fraud, wire fraud, commodity fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. On Thursday, he agreed to be held without bail before U.S. Magistrate Robert Lerberger. Inner City Press I mentioned.

Kwon founded Terra, a large-scale crypto ecosystem with applications built on the LUNA token and the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST). The project was popular with investors, and it quickly grew to become the second largest blockchain in the industry after it Ethereum By early 2022.

Its original cryptocurrency, LUNA, was at its peak as one of the top digital assets by market cap. Kwon made a lot of money, very quickly, and even He mocked The "poor" people on X (formerly Twitter).

But terra He collapsed In May 2022, taking with it $40 billion in investor money. The collapse led to a brutal bear market, with many of the cryptocurrency projects that were exposed to the project later declaring bankruptcy.

The project's main product, the UST stablecoin, was unable to maintain its stable peg to the dollar, causing the entire ecosystem to collapse and lose almost all of its value in a matter of days.

Authorities in both the US and South Korea are now claiming that the businessman was a fraudster who tricked investors into buying his cryptocurrency.

“Behind the scenes, Terraform’s core products did not perform as Kwon advertised, and were manipulated to create the illusion of an efficient, decentralized financial system in order to attract investors,” Thursday’s indictment said.

It was Kwon Arrested in Montenegro last year for allegedly trying to travel on a false passport. His lawyers kept him in the country until Tuesday, when it finally happened Hand it over To the United States.

Modified by Andrew Hayward