The American cryptocurrency billionaire who took the lead in promoting the Korean cryptocurrency Luna and the stable coin Terra USD (UST) submitted a belated reflection on the collapse of the two coins on the 18th (local time).
Mike Novogratz, CEO of cryptocurrency asset management company Galaxy Digital, sent a letter to its shareholders on the same day, expressing his position on the collapse of Luna and UST, Bloomberg News reported.
"It was a big idea that failed," Novogratz said. "The $40 billion market value was lost in Luna and UST alone."
He continued, "We didn't have enough reserves to prevent the collapse of the UST," he said.
Galaxy Digital is one of the venture capital firms that invested in Luna and Terraform Rams, the issuer of UST.
When the price of Luna rose in January, Novogratz introduced himself as a 'Lunatic' (an avid Luna investor) and even got a tattoo.
The tattoo he posted on Twitter was a drawing of a wolf howling to the moon with the words Luna.
Among coin investors, 'go to the moon' means a surge in price.
Terraform Labs CEO Kwon Do-hyung nicknamed Novogratz the 'King Lunatic'.
Novogratz said in a letter to shareholders:
Bloomberg noted that Novogratz attributed the declines in Luna and UST simply to the macro-environment.
Novogratz explained to shareholders that risky assets such as virtual currencies were adjusted due to inflation, and then withdrawals such as 'bank runs' occurred at Luna and UST.
In his diagnosis, Fortune, a business magazine, pointed out that there had been warnings before that the method of backing the stablecoin UST value with Luna would eventually collapse.
(Photo = Getty Images Korea)