🚔 S. Korea Asks Interpol to Help Arrest This Crypto Guy

Welcome to The Level Ups. Modern business news for the future business leader.

Today, we cover how one person’s ego got so big that an entire government is chasing him down. 

Today, we cover the bad (and the good) sides of crypto.

• S. Korea asks Interpol to issue a red notice for Do Kwon, most famous for the Luna project.

• My favourite Crypto projects (which are not built on fraud)

• Sneak peek into the most insane AI technology I’ve seen in years.

BTW: I'm skipping how “coins” work and what’s safe vs. not safe. Other publications cover crypto and do a much better job than I ever could. The Mint is one you should check out. 

Let’s get into it.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes & 19 seconds.

Who is Do Kwon and Why Is South Korea after him?

This guy has a long, exciting story. His LinkedIn is still up but doesn't do the story justice. 

You can read the entire history here. In this video, you can watch him talk about the fall. 

Here is my quick summary of Do Kwon’s timeline.

• Finished his BS in Stanford in 2015.

• Launched Terra Labs in January of 2018.

• Terra made a project called Luna in February of 2019.

• Many people and companies invested fortunes in Terra and Terra (once worth $29B).

• In May 2022, Luna lost 99.9% of its value in 3 days. That was $45B just gone, leaving people calling it a Ponzi scheme.

It looked like a Ponzi scheme.

This mess ruined people’s lives. Yes, those investors made risky investment decisions. I get that.

But it’s safe to say there might’ve been some foul play involved now that an entire country is hunting him down.

Everyone lost here. Companies, retail investors, this guy:

Very unfortunate. It’s what happens when you have misplaced belief in your own hype. He already said he’s ultimately responsible.

But why is Interpol getting involved?

The Hunt Is On

South Korea is going for his throat.

• Issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon and five others who were part of the project.

• They were also placed on a no-fly list.

• Do Kwon ran for it, allegedly to Singapore, but their police are saying he’s not there.

• Now that Korean prosecutors can’t find him, they’ve asked Interpol to issue a red notice.

A red notice is an international warrant for arrest. It can stop people from getting on flights and getting visas. There are roughly 70,000 red notices out now.

Do you think they’ll find him and charge him?

Regardless, the whole debacle gives crypto a bad name.

My Favourite Crypto Projects

There’s always another side to the story. I have no stake in any of these projects but find them interesting for different reasons.

Anti Collective

An online community for enthusiasts to share tips and talk shop. The founder, Traf, has expanded to his own NFT (the Anti Pass) and merch.

The collective also has its own projects that grow from within its community. An exciting project that doesn’t rely on scamming people or huge gambles on JPEGS.

Smoothie

Smoothie is Product Hunt but for crypto and web3. I like the idea of following a successful business' blueprint and applying it to crypto.

Product Hunt is a platform for makers to share their latest projects with a community that loves new products. I check it every day and have seen that business grow firsthand. I'm sure Smoothie will do the same. I've added it to my daily checks. 

Smoothie recently raised $1.2M, and you can read exactly what it means from the founder in this thread:

Ticketmaster NFTs

Gary V used to talk a lot about NFTs being used for ticket sales. It looks like he was right.

That concert or basketball game might become a significant historical moment 20 years later. When that happens, superfans will pay big money for those ticket stubs.

For example, a ticket stub from Michael Jordan’s debut game sold for $264,000.00

This tech allows organizers like the NBA, the Chicago Bulls, and Ticketmaster to take a cut on stub sales. NFTs (and the tech it’s all built on) work that way.

Sounds fantastic 20 years from now. Until then, I think it’s just going to be another fee. Once one person finally sells that NFT for big $$$, we might see ordinary people dive in. Exciting project.

AI Is Too Good:

Read this prompt and think about a picture an artist might give you.

Did the designer do well?

My headline gave it away. AI designed that image based on the prompt. No human touched it up.

It’s amazing and terrifying at the same time.

I’ll share more later this week (still researching). For now, here’s the website. And here’s the link for that exact image.

Thanks for reading!

See you tomorrow,

None of this is financial or investment advice. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you’re reading here. Any decisions you make based on this information, whether it goes terribly wrong or amazingly right, are all on you.