Is Do Kwon basically the Elizabeth Holmes of crypto?
- Rich family, Stanford
- Manipulative smooth talker
- Promised a revolutionary new model that would disrupt the status quo
- Became famous, hit $9b+, fooled intelligent investors/funds
- Defrauded retail with outright lies
Uncanny similarities - watching a video on her now - "she knew the product didn't work yet but insisted on running real tests on people that had serious illnesses" - just like how Do sold Anchor to Korean retirees as a safe savings account despite knowing LUNA would likely fail.
Employees who spoke up were fired, similar to Anchor's early days; employees who kept silent were promoted. Her cult of personality & persuasive skills had investors believing her every word without sufficient documentation, similar to diehard LUNAtics supporting him even now...
The company's board was stuffed with trusted former US officials - similar to how LFG's board was full of 'trusted' crypto figures - but it was later revealed that the board was easily swayed, and Holmes herself had all the power - just like how Do Kwon lied about the multisig...
Former employees & people with insider information went to John Carreyrou from the WSJ, who was investigating the Theranos fraud. He was threatened with defamation lawsuits and there were internal campaigns against him trying to kill the news story ASAP. He refused
When the news came out, Holmes responded by outright lying to the public, despite all of the evidence (remind you of a certain recent tweet?) - she expected that everyone would just believe her again - "but this time it was different - people were asking serious questions."
In the end, Theranos gets investigated by the SEC, is sued by investors who were manipulated, and the sociopathic Holmes is hit with fraud charges. "History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes." Great video, can't believe I haven't seen it before: