Montenegro court rejects extradition order for crypto tycoon 

Montenegro has already deported Kwon’s business partner — identified only by his initials JCH – to South Korea in early February.

The company’s TerraUSD was marketed as a “stablecoin”, a token that is pegged to stable assets such as the US dollar to prevent drastic fluctuations.

Do Kwon successfully marketed them as the next big thing in crypto, attracting billions in investments and global hype.

Media reports in South Korea described him as a “genius”.

But despite billions in investments, TerraUSD and sister token Luna went into a death spiral in May 2022.

Experts said Kwon had set up a glorified Ponzi scheme, in which many investors lost their life savings.

He left South Korea before the crash and spent months on the run, finally winding up in custody in Montenegro after trying to board a flight with fake Costa Rican travel documents.

In January, Terraform Labs officially sought bankruptcy protection in the United States.

The bankruptcy filing would allow Terraform “to execute on its business plan while navigating ongoing legal proceedings, including representative litigation pending in Singapore and US litigation involving the Securities and Exchange Commission”, the firm said in a statement.

The company said it also intended to “meet all financial obligations to employees and vendors”.

Cryptocurrencies have come under increasing scrutiny from regulators after a string of controversies during the past year, including the high-profile collapse of the exchange FTX.