Crypto Kingpins, Collapsing Stablecoins, and the Ten Million Dollar Oopsie

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The gaunt, sleepless creator of a humiliated lending platform-let’s call him Huynh Tran Quang Duy, though legends are always called by many names-has, in the spirit of true modern tragedy, agreed to cough up more than $10.5 million to the stern but unimpressed US Securities and Exchange Commission. His crime? Taking the sacred trust of hopeful investors and hurling it headlong into TerraUSD, that digital coin whose promises proved to be, how shall we say, about as stable as a rowboat during a hurricane.

To the masses, Duy Huynh, captain of the ill-fated barge ‘MyConstant,’ swore on the blockchain that their gold would swell in value through a mysterious loan matching service, with the cool return of 10%. Even the SEC, those watchdogs with ink-stained collars, managed a weary sigh at this.

But, as the SEC’s eternal order declares, Huynh took a sledgehammer to fiduciary responsibility: $11.9 million of the people’s money transmogrified into TerraUSD (UST), a stablecoin clinging to the Terra blockchain like a snowflake to a bonfire. By mid-2022, the stablecoin performed its signature nosedive, dragging billions in other people’s dreams down after it. The crash didn’t just wipe portfolios; it flushed half a trillion dollars through crypto’s leaky pipes-enough to traumatize even a banker.

MyConstant, that brave little raft, wasn’t alone-many had hitched their wagons to Terra’s star and watched them burst into flame. By late 2022, as California’s regulators sharpened their pitchforks and lights flickered out at MyConstant HQ, investors wondered if they’d see restitution or just another sorry note.

Huynh, Patron Saint of Restitution, Writes a Cheque

The SEC, through gritted teeth and legalese, tells us that Huynh (half-American, half-Vietnamese, and all in trouble) agreed-probably with less enthusiasm than a man at the dentist’s-to disgorge more than $8.3 million and sweeten it with $1.5 million of prejudgment interest. “Disgorge”-as if the money were a particularly indigestible meal.

And for dessert: a $750,000 civil penalty payable faster than you can say “pump and dump.” All, naturally, smothered in the usual sauce of “no admission or denial”-because in crypto, reality is always optional.

How to Lose $8 Million and Half an Empire

MyConstant, founded in 2018, promised noble returns of 6% to 10%, all “low risk” with the sturdy back of crypto-a guarantee more reliable than a weather forecast from a fortune cookie. Between late 2020 and fall 2022, it vacuumed up over $20 million from more than 4,000 souls dazzled by promises and acronyms.

Huynh, demonstrating madcap confidence, splurged $11.9 million on TerraUSD and, because cosmic irony demands it, spent another $415,000 on “personal use.” By May 2022, however, TerraUSD crashed so hard, it left a cartoon crater: $7.9 million lost without so much as a commemorative fridge magnet. Investors got “assurances,” and emailed reports painting a picture more fictional than Russian fairy tales. Loans were invented, trust was borrowed, and then MyConstant itself disappeared into 2022’s great inventory of crypto obituaries. A meager $1.8 million wandered back to investors, and the rest is in trust-because what is crypto if not a trusting game?

TerraUSD: The Great Yield Mirage

Did Huynh even have a plan for all that TerraUSD-or was it just another ticket to Crypto Vegas? Terra’s blockchain, at the height of its delusions, offered up to 20% returns through Anchor Protocol. Sounds safe, right? Just ask any seasoned gambler.

A market lull, users yanking their coins, and suddenly TerraUSD’s magical algorithm-meant to keep its value mechanically tethered to $1-proved itself about as reliable as a broken abacus. As LUNA’s price cratered, the stablecoin depegged, launching what’s politely called a “death spiral.” Billions went up in digital smoke while Terra co-founder Do Kwon now awaits his turn on the carousel of American justice-multiple fraud charges and counting. 🚓

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2025-08-06 06:51