Crypto company employees hit with travel ban after crash – a sign of things to come?

South Korea - Imagine heading to the airport to go on vacation, only to find out that you're not allowed to leave the country. Well, that's pretty what employees of one crypto company are facing after their coin's value dropped to nothing.

Losing almost all of a project's value in a matter of weeks is not a good look.
Losing almost all of a project's value in a matter of weeks is not a good look.  © REUTERS

Do Kwon and 14 other current and former workers at Terraform Labs aren't allowed to leave South Korea while criminal investigations unfold, according to Web3 Is Going Just Great.

The company's stablecoin TerraUSD crashed in May when the value of the digital currency LUNA dropped, and since then, both criminal cases and class action lawsuits have been filed against Do Kwon's company.

The travel ban for employees, including former employees, is a good look at what could happen to other blockchain projects based in the US.

False tweet from US regulator briefly sends bitcoin soaring
Finance False tweet from US regulator briefly sends bitcoin soaring

As Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission figure out how to keep tabs on the budding tech-fueled finance industry, it could lead to similar stories of crypto companies under investigation while their employees are told not to leave town.

Stuck due to crypto

Former Terraform Labs employee Daniel Hong tweeted Monday that he wasn't allowed to get on a flight to New York, explaining that it was due to an exit ban from the South Korean government.

"[The] Korean government imposed an exit ban for all ex-@terra_money employees today," he wrote.

Do Kwon, who is also banned from leaving the country, has played things close to the chest on the crash that led to investigations into his company, saying only that he "lost most of what [he] had in the crash too."

Meanwhile, the crypto winter that has wiped out so much of the industry's value continues raging.

Cover photo: REUTERS

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