Today marks the anniversary of Do Kwon's infamous tweet, a message that has since become a cautionary tale and meme within the crypto community. On May 9, 2022, Kwon, Terra's founder, tweeted, "Deploying more capital - steady lads," amid the turmoil of Terra's collapse. The tweet signaled a desperate attempt to maintain confidence in the Terra ecosystem, despite UST's lost peg to the dollar and LUNA's plummeting value.
In March 2022, critics had already started questioning Terra's stability, with some even betting against the price of LUNA. However, Kwon seemed unfazed and even taunted his critics on social media.
As Terra's LUNA token reached new all-time highs, influential traders and investors publicly supported the project. By April 2022, Terra's LUNA token hit an all-time high of $119.2, and UST became the third largest stablecoin.
But the good times were short-lived. By early May, UST began to struggle, and signs of capital flight emerged. Kwon's ill-fated tweet came as UST lost its peg to the dollar for the second time, and LUNA's value began to spiral downward.
The fallout was swift and devastating, with LUNA's price eventually dropping 96% in a day, leading to the halt of the Terra blockchain and the end of trading for Terra tokens on major exchanges.The Terra founder was initially trying to downplay the severity of the situation while denying that he was on the run in spite of mounting legal troubles.
In March, Kwon was arrested in Montenegro, and he will likely face more than 40 years behind bars if he gets extradited to South Korea.