Do Kwon has ‘great confidence’ in rebuilding Terra blockchain: WSJ

Do Kwon, CEO of Terraform Labs, expressed confidence today in the latest efforts to rebuild the Terra blockchain following the collapse of its predecessor in May.

Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Wednesday that he has “great confidence” in the company’s ability to “build back even stronger” than before.

Kwon’s proposal to relaunch the Terra blockchain and create a new token was passed in late May following majority votes among holders of Terraform Labs’ Luna governance token. The votes paved the way for the creation of the new blockchain called Terra, while the old version was renamed Terra Classic. 

“Many builders are in the process of relaunching their apps on the new chain,” Kwon said.

As previously reported by The Block, the Terra ecosystem dramatically imploded in early May as both the value of the UST stablecoin as well as Terra’s native asset, Luna, fell sharply in value. The resultant market chaos took place amid broader macroeconomic turmoil and set the stage for the continued volatility in the crypto market seen in recent weeks.

Kwon said he was “devastated” by the Terra crisis. “[I] hope that all the families who’ve been impacted are taking care of themselves and those that they love,” he added. 

Following the collapse, Kwon and Terraform Labs were hit by a class-action lawsuit that accused them of selling unregistered securities and making false statements about the stability of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin and related token LUNA. Other defendants named in the case are Jump Crypto, Jump Trading and Three Arrows Capital.

Kwon and the company are already the subjects of another ongoing lawsuit in South Korea, with prosecutors barring Terra developers from leaving the country.

Some in the crypto community have accused Kwon of running a sophisticated scam, as reported by the WSJ. Cory Klippstein, the CEO of Swan Bitcoin, called Kwon, as quoted by the WSJ, “a fraudster.”

Kwon rejected that description, saying he made confident bets and statements on behalf of the UST because he “believed in its resilience and its value proposition.”

“I’ve since lost these bets, but my actions 100% match my words,” Kwon added. “There is a difference between failing and running a fraud.”

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