Wanted crypto exec linked to $60 billion crash faces passport freeze
South Korean authorities are seeking the arrest of Do Kwon, co-founder and chief executive officer of Terraform Labs. His company is behind the now-collapsed terraUSD and luna cryptocurrencies. South Korean prosecutors are now seeking to freeze bitcoin linked to Kwon.
Woohae Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images
South Korean authorities on Thursday began the process of canceling the passport of Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon whose company was behind a dramatic $60 billion cryptocurrency collapse.
Police have also arrested one person in connection with Kwon’s operations.
Kwon has been ordered by the South Korean foreign ministry to return his passport by Oct. 19 or face having the document canceled.
The saga between Kwon and South Korean authorities continues to intensify after the collapse of terraUSD and luna wiped billions off of the cryptocurrency market and sent shockwaves through the industry. Terraform Labs, Kwon’s company, was behind both of those digital coins.
South Korean authorities looked to arrest Kwon’s last month and claimed he is on the run. The prosecutors said that Interpol, the global policing organization, has issued a “Red Notice” for Kwon. Such notices are issued for fugitives wanted either for prosecution or to serve a sentence.
Kwon, however, insists he is not on the run. His whereabouts is still unknown.
The Seoul Southern District prosecutors’ office, who is chasing Kwon, has accused the founder and five others of violating capital markets law and fraud. On Thursday, the office confirmed to CNBC that it had arrested one of the people it was looking for surnamed Yu.
No arrest warrant has yet been issued. But authorities are able to arrest someone on the grounds of concern that this person may feel. A warrant needs to be granted within 48 hours of the arrest or the person must be let go.
South Korean prosecutors have also put in a request to KuCoin and OKX, two cryptocurrency exchanges, to freeze more than $60 million bitcoin tied to Kwon.
On Wednesday, local media reported that prosecutors had frozen an additional 56.2 billion South Korean won ($39.9 million) of digital assets belonging to Kwon.
However, the crypto founder refuted those claims on Twitter. Kwon said no funds have been frozen.
The Seoul Southern District prosecutors’ office declined to comment on the report of the frozen funds.
Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk appears on a media tour of the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, on Sept. 23, 2025.
Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Oracle on Friday pushed back against a report that said the company will complete data centers for OpenAI, one of its major customers, in 2028, rather than 2027.
The delay is due to a shortage of labor and materials, according to the Friday report from Bloomberg, which cited unnamed people. Oracle shares fell to a session low of $185.98, down 6.5% from Thursday’s close.
“Site selection and delivery timelines were established in close coordination with OpenAI following execution of the agreement and were jointly agreed,” an Oracle spokesperson said in an email to CNBC. “There have been no delays to any sites required to meet our contractual commitments, and all milestones remain on track.”
The Oracle spokesperson did not specify a timeline for turning on cloud computing infrastructure for OpenAI. In September, OpenAI said it had a partnership with Oracle worth more than $300 billion over the next five years.
“We have a good relationship with OpenAI,” Clay Magouyrk, one of Oracle’s two newly appointed CEOs, said at an October analyst meeting.
Doing business with OpenAI is relatively new to 48-year-old Oracle. Historically, Oracle grew through sales of its database software and business applications. Its cloud infrastructure business now contributes over one-fourth of revenue, although Oracle remains a smaller hyperscaler than Amazon, Microsoft and Google.
OpenAI has also made commitments to other companies as it looks to meet expected capacity needs.
In September, Nvidia said it had signed a letter of intent with OpenAI to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia equipment for the San Francisco artificial intelligence startup. The first phase of that project is expected in the second half of 2026.
Nvidia and OpenAI said in a September statement that they “look forward to finalizing the details of this new phase of strategic partnership in the coming weeks.”
But no announcement has come yet.
In a November filing, Nvidia said “there is no assurance that we will enter into definitive agreements with respect to the OpenAI opportunity.”
OpenAI has historically relied on Nvidia graphics processing units to operate ChatGPT and other products, and now it’s also looking at designing custom chips in a collaboration with Broadcom.
On Thursday, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan laid out a timeline for the OpenAI work, which was announced in October. Broadcom and OpenAI said they had signed a term sheet.
“It’s more like 2027, 2028, 2029, 10 gigawatts, that was the OpenAI discussion,” Tan said on Broadcom’s earnings call. “And that’s, I call it, an agreement, an alignment of where we’re headed with respect to a very respected and valued customer, OpenAI. But we do not expect much in 2026.”
OpenAI declined to comment.
WATCH: Oracle says there have been ‘no delays’ in OpenAI arrangement after stock slide
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment3 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024