Do Kwon Criminal Trial Starts January 2026

Do Kwon, a brazen cryptocurrency entrepreneur and co-founder of the $40 billion failed Terra blockchain, will stand trial before a U.S. judge next year. Kwon’s criminal trial will start on January 26, 2026, according to a decision made Wednesday by federal judge Paul Engelmayer.

He has one week to ask for an earlier trial because he and his lawyer did not fully discuss the possible trial date.

In his Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday, the judge stated that he had never presided over a case in which the arraignment and trial were separated by more than a year.

The judge added, however, that he had never heard a case that required the long pause as much as Kwon’s, pointing to the “daunting” volume of evidence that prosecutors and defense lawyers had to contend with. Kwon was arrested in March 2023 after a six-month manhunt while trying to board a flight with a forged passport, according to authorities, and prosecutors in both nations sought his extradition. Kwon entered a not-guilty plea to nine fraud charges last week.

In a canary-yellow jumpsuit on Wednesday, prosecutor Jared Lenow informed the judge that Kwon had planned “a massive, highly sophisticated fraud.”. “He wasn’t just pushing a coin,” Lenow claimed, but “a utopian system” comprised a payment system, savings bank, and stablecoin that their users allegedly ran.

Prosecutors claim that the “core systems” did not work as promised. According to Lenow, Kwon had to step in and “create the illusion” that an ecosystem that was supposed to be self-regulating was functioning because “behind the scenes, it didn’t work.”.

According to Kwon’s defense lawyer, former federal prosecutor Michael Ferrara, there was a legitimate product and refuted claims that  Kwon intended to defraud investors.

The Department of Justice states that Kwon faces a maximum sentence of 130 years in prison if found guilty of all charges.

Olumide Adesina

Financial Market Writer

Olumide Adesina is a French-born Nigerian financial writer. He tracks, analyzes, and reports changes in financial markets with over 15 years of working experience in investment trading.