Crypto Crooks is sponsored by Chainalysis, the leading blockchain data platform.

It's a well-worn adage that time moves faster in crypto.

And in just the two months since we finished writing and recording our season about Doquan and Terra, the story has evolved dramatically.

On February 16th of 2023, nine months after the Terra blockchain collapsed to zero, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges for securities fraud

against Doe Kwan and Terraform Labs. The SEC accuses Doe Kwan of even bigger

deceptions and crimes than we described in our first four episodes. Among the allegations

is that Doe and allies have stolen funds at a scale

far beyond any previous estimates, netting at least $100 million by selling assets they still

controlled after the Terra collapse. These and other new details from the SEC help reframe some parts of the story we've told

over the past four episodes.

Our main focus has been on the flaws in the very idea of an algorithmic stable coin.

We showed how, despite its big promises, the algorithmic

stable coin TerraUSD could not possibly work. We compared Doe Kwan to Elizabeth Holmes, who promised

Theranos investors far more than she could deliver. Both later tried to defend themselves by saying that failure wasn't the same thing as fraud.

Perhaps they were just a bit naive, a bit too ambitious, flew just a bit too close to the sun.

But is it a crime to dream big?

They were following the old Silicon Valley adage, fake it till you make it.

They just fell a bit short on the make it part.

But according to the SEC, Doe Kwan was just faking it.

He didn't over-promise and under-deliver.

They allege he defrauded investors intentionally and knowingly

from nearly the very beginning.

...