Life Sours For Terra’s Do Kwon: Will Disgraced Crypto Kid Face Second Sentence Or Trump Crypto Pardon?

[Ben Graham]

Do Kwon, founder of the now-infamous Terraform Labs and its LUNA crypto token and the UST stablecoin, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in the US, and news is beginning to spread that a second sentence could await him in his homeland, South Korea.

The disgraced rich kid caused an estimated $40Bn in investor losses due to the unwinding of the UST stablecoin and the subsequent 99% drop in the LUNA token’s value.

President Trump spoke just yesterday about the case of Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, the Samourai privacy wallet creators who were charged by the Department of Justice, saying he will be “looking into it”. This comes off the back of multiple crypto-related pardons from the President, which have seen Binance founder CZ walk free and Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht pardoned earlier this year.

If Do Kwon returns with a conditional pardon from Trump — compensation for victims , system rebuilding , and reviving the Terra vision — don't be surprised if you witness the greatest comeback in cryptocurrency history . Luna didn't fall… it was preparing for a rebir pic.twitter.com/0sfjjFaWFv

— Phantom Whale (@MouhieddinA) December 12, 2025

Could Trump Come to the Rescue of Do Kwon, or is the South Korean One Step too Far for the President?

Many wonder where President Trump will draw the line with his growing number of crypto-related pardons since taking office for the second time in January 2025.

With the likes of CZ, Ross Ulbricht receiving pardons, and now rumors swirling of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Samourai Wallet creators Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill being next up, it remains to be seen whether the President will speak on Do Kwon’s fifteen-year sentence before potentially making a move to pardon the LUNA creator.

The collapse of the project’s twin digital assets, TerraUSD (UST) and LUNA, in 2022 led to an estimated $40Bn in investor losses, and the entrepreneur found himself in serious legal trouble. Do Kwon fled to Eastern Europe, and in March 2023, Montenegrin authorities arrested the Terraform Labs founder while attempting to escape to Dubai.

By January 2024, Terraform Labs had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US. As the crypto founder was extradited from Montenegro to the US, the legal proceedings began in New York.

DO KWON FACES MORE JAIL TIME IN KOREA

Do Kwon could face 30+ years in prison if extradited to South Korea, on top of his 15-year U.S. sentence, prosecutors say. pic.twitter.com/xIgtrO2w7X

— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) December 15, 2025

He was subsequently found guilty of nine charges, including fraud and money laundering, and a Manhattan federal court recently sentenced him to 15 years in prison and ordered the forfeiture of $19M in illicit gains.

And if things couldn’t have gotten any worse for Do Kwon, he could now face a separate criminal trial in South Korea if transferred there after servingpart of his 15-year US sentence. Korean prosecutors say a conviction under the Capital Markets Act could add decades more prison time, independent of the US case.

Early indications point toward the US not standing in the way of South Korea retrialling Do Kwon and potentially handing him over to his birth country to continue a sentence there, if convicted.

Whether President Trump intervenes to save Do Kwon from a lengthy sentence remains to be seen, but given his track record in 2025, it is certainly worth keeping an eye on.

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Terra (LUNA) and Terra Luna Classic (LUNC) Both Pump Heavily on Do Kwon Sentencing News

In classic crypto fashion, the culmination of Do Kwon’s legal battle and subsequent jail sentence was met with a market pump for both the OG LUNA Terra Classic LUNC $0.000040 1.46% Terra Classic LUNC Price $0.000040 1.46% /24h Volume in 24h $43.05M Price 7d Learn more and the Luna 2.0 project (LUNC).

In the past fourteen days, LUNC is up +48%, while LUNA has surged +92%. Both have cooled down by now, but it is typical of the degenerate crypto crowd to pump the tokens launched by Do Kwon, which caused billions of dollars in investor losses.

LUNC was the original LUNA, renamed and now viewed as a penny stock or memecoin, compared to its peak. By April 2022, the original LUNA was trading at $116, with a market cap of $40Bn, and ranked in the top 20 by valuation.

Market Cap

24h 7d 30d 1y All Time

The unwinding saw it fall to $0.000001, a -99.99% decrease, and today it trades for $0.000039. Astonishingly, the LUNC market cap remains at $218M, keeping it in the top 250 digital assets.

The current LUNA ticker was a 2.0 version launched by Do Kwon early on in his attempt to make good on the investor losses by creating a fresh version of the project. And after peaking at $18.5 in May 2022, it too quickly dropped -99% and as of today, it trades for $0.13.

With the failure of the original LUNA, the UST stablecoin, and the attempted 2.0 version of LUNA, Do Kwon has essentially rugpulled three separate tokens, resulting in mid-eleven-figure losses for the crypto community.

Do Kwon, alongside Bankman-Fried, may be a step too far for President Trump and his trigger-happy approach to crypto pardons of late. Either pardoning the LUNA founder or the head of FTX would likely prompt a torrent of backlash that the President may not wish to test.

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