Cryptocrash: ‘I was arrested for knocking on Luna boss's door'
The sudden collapse of two popular digital coins in early May shocked investors and wiped $400bn (£318bn) from the value of many other cryptocurrencies, including the biggest, Bitcoin. All over the world, people who lost their life savings are now appealing for help. One desperate man was even arrested after visiting the home of the elusive businessman at the centre of the "cryptocrash". He told BBC News his life was in tatters.
In the volatile world of cryptocurrencies, fortunes can be made and lost rapidly - but the May 2022 cryptocrash has been particularly devastating for one man in South Korea.
"I felt like I was going to die," the cryptocurrency streamer known as Chancers says. "I lost a lot of money in a short period of time. Around $2.4m (£1.9m) of my cryptocurrency was wiped out."
Chancers has been investing in cryptocurrencies since 2017, and says he became wealthy in the past five years as the value of Bitcoin and other digital coins rose.
"Here in Korea I was in the top 1% in terms of my finances. But thanks to the crash, I'm now in trouble," he told BBC News.
Chancers invested $800,000 of his money in a digital token called Terra Luna at the worst possible time.
Big bet
Terra Luna came to prominence in December 2021, when the value of each coin started rising - from $5 to a high of $116 in April this year.
Like many people, Chancers made a big bet on the coin rising further.
But then suddenly, on 9 May, it collapsed, losing 99% of its value in just 48 hours.
Now, each Terra Luna coin is worth less than $0.0002, or two-hundredths of a cent.
Panicked sell-off
Terra Luna's fall began when its sister cryptocurrency, TerraUSD, suddenly lost value, experts say.
TerraUSD is a so-called "stablecoin" a cryptocurrency token supposed to avoid major fluctuations in value. The companies behind stablecoins try to ensure they remain in parity with assets such as the US dollar - with one token equalling $1, for example.
But when TerraUSD's value plummeted, a panicked sell-off began and Terra Luna - algorithmically linked to TerraUSD - simultaneously nosedived.
The rest of the cryptocurrency world watched the implosion in horror and pulled billions of dollars out of other digital currencies.
2022-05-23 20:41:00
