Terraform Labs appointed a new chief executive officer following Do Kwon’s resignation on March 31, 2023. In a Wall Street Journal interview, the interim CEO, Chris Amani, discussed his team’s “vision” for rescuing the beleaguered blockchain project.
Terraform Labs Finds New Leadership, Attorneys Seek to Dismiss SEC Case Following Ripple Decision
Chris Amani, Terraform Labs’ fresh CEO, revealed that the incarcerated Do Kwon stepped down in March just before his arrest. Previously serving as the company’s COO, Amani assumed the role of interim CEO. Speaking with the Wall Street Journal, he stated that the firm plans to develop applications offering “real utility.” Following the Terra blockchain ecosystem’s collapse in May 2022, numerous Terra Classic blockchain supporters expressed their desire to re-establish USTC’s peg to the U.S. dollar.
A group of six unidentified developers submitted a plan for rejuvenating the Terra Classic ecosystem. The new LUNA 2.0 token and Phoenix blockchain activity and value have significantly diminished, with LUNA down 96.63% from its peak on May 28, 2022. The cryptocurrency currently possesses a market valuation of approximately $207 million, and around $6 million in total value is locked across nine decentralized finance platforms. Amani did not specify whether Terra Classic or Terra Phoenix would be the primary focus of their efforts during his interview.
However, he assured that further information would be divulged in the coming months. “We have a vision for how we could salvage this, even though I think it’s going to be hard and it’s going to take a long time,” said Amani during the discussion. Roughly 15 of the company’s 40 employees were part of Terraform Labs before the stablecoin depegging incident led to the blockchain ecosystem’s downfall. Kwon was sentenced to four months in prison in Montenegro for allegedly using counterfeit identification at an airport, with prosecutors from the United States and South Korea seeking his extradition on various charges.
The CEO news broke after Terraform Labs lawyers asked the court for certain information related to FTX, believing this data could aid their defense in a lawsuit initiated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Additionally, defense attorneys sought dismissal of specific charges, following Ripple Labs’ recent partial victory against the SEC.
“Ripple is thus fatal to the SEC’s arguments that UST, LUNA, wLUNA, MIR, and mAssets were sold as investment contracts,” the court filing details. “This conclusion requires dismissal of the SEC’s fraud claims as well as its registration claims.”
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