The Terra/Luna token was created by a South Korean company. These quotes are from reporting by the Financial Times:
“As the losses mounted, South Korean press reports linked the crash with a local surge in online searches for Seoul’s Mapo Bridge, a reputed suicide spot. Local police announced increased patrols around the bridge in response.”
‘“Do Kwon was like a successful cult leader,” said Donghwan Kim of Blitz Labs, a Seoul-based crypto advisory firm. “But now he’s the most hated man in Korea.”’
Venture capital lended an aura of legitimacy to the cult-like operation:
“Individual investors had been attracted by a scheme in which clients could lend out their terra for a 20 per cent yield. But hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in Terraform Labs came from venture capital firms including Galaxy Digital, whose chief executive Mike Novogratz would later acquire a luna tattoo on his left shoulder.”
‘“Commitments from some of the most respected funds is a testament to the shared vision of bringing decentralised finance to the masses,” Kwon declared in July last year.’
‘“About Won14tn-Won15tn was deposited in just one year after they began to offer the 20 per cent yield,” Kwon’s former colleague said. “Retail investors were lured by the high yield, while venture capital was attracted by the coins’ fast growth. The speed of growth was unsustainable.”’
15 trillion won is 12 billion USD. The scale of the scam was massive, and it’s possibly only the first crypto domino to fall.