Terra developer Terraform Labs files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Terraform Labs, the blockchain firm behind the notorious Terra ecosystem, has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. a month after a court ruled that the firm violated the U.S. laws.

In court documents filed on Jan. 21, the Singapore-based blockchain firm Terraform Labs disclosed liabilities ranging from $100 million to $500 million. Among the creditors holding the largest unsecured claims are Nansen CEO Alexander Svanevik of Standard Crypto and Ashley Swaren, a commercial lead at TokenTerminal Rasmus Savander.

The filing will reportedly allow the firm to execute on its business plan while navigating ongoing legal proceedings, including “representative litigation pending in Singapore and U.S. litigation” involving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Terraform Labs said in a statement, according to Reuters.

Following this news, the price of LUNA slid by over 5%, dropping to $0.62 according to CoinGecko data.

In late December 2023, a U.S. federal judge sided with the SEC in a case against Terraform Labs and its former boss, Do Kwon, who has been in custody in Montenegro since March 2023 after being convicted of attempting to use a fake passport to escape to Dubai via a private jet. The U.S. court’s decision pointed to Terraform Labs and Do Kwon’s sale of two unregistered securities, specifically referring to the LUNA, UST, and MIR tokens.

Terraform Labs played a crucial role in the Terra ecosystem by developing and supporting various projects and protocols within the ecosystem. One of the key products of Terra was its failed algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST), which was designed to maintain its peg to the U.S. dollar by being algorithmically linked to LUNA.