- Terraform Labs liquidator sues Jump Trading for $4B over alleged TerraUSD manipulation
Lawsuit claims secret UST support earned Jump $1.28B through discounted LUNA deals
Case may redefine legal limits for crypto market makers and liquidity providers
Terraform Labs has re-entered the legal spotlight after its court-appointed liquidator filed a $4 billion lawsuit in the United States. The case is against trading company Jump Trading and two ex-executives. The lawsuit accuses Jump Trading and the two ex-executives of manipulating markets, which was concealed behind the TerraUSD stablecoin. The filing reinstates measures that purportedly enabled the hiding of risks prior to the $40 billion fallout of the Terraform Labs ecosystem in 2022.
Todd Snyder, a liquidator, filed the case in a federal district court in Illinois. It charges Jump Trading as the defendant, along with its co-founder, William DiSomma, and former Jump Crypto president, Kanav Kariya. Snyder alleges that the company was involved in secretive fake business at the expense of investors. He claims that the actions disrupted the apparent stability of TerraUSD.
The focus of the case is the TerraUSD, or UST. The complaint states that UST initially lost its peg to the dollar in May 2021. The filing accuses Jump of secretly intervening in the course of this incident. It asserts that the company bought high quantities of UST to convert the value to a single dollar. Terraform Labs supposedly packaged the recovery as a natural consequence of its algorithm.
Terraform Labs Deal Gave Jump Deeply Discounted LUNA Tokens
According to the liquidator, this action created a misleading market signal. Investors thought that the algorithm achieved success. The suit asserts that Jump’s participation never reached the market. Snyder states that such non-disclosure enabled more serious failures in the system.
Terraform Labs in turn changed a previous contract with Jump, the complaint claims, in exchange for the intervention. The new terms were supposed to enable Jump to purchase LUNA tokens at high discounts. The filing states that Jump purchased LUNA at a price as low as $0.40. LUNA was trading at the time above $90 in the open market.
Also Read: Coinbase Files Lawsuits Against US States Over Prediction Markets Regulation
The suit claims Jump subsequently resold such discounted tokens at massive profits. According to Snyder, the sales yielded the firm an estimated revenue of close to $1.28 billion. He states that these gains were directly related to actions that concealed instability. The lawsuit cites that investors made higher losses when the ecosystem subsequently failed.
SEC Settlement Adds Weight to Terraform Labs Lawsuit
The case is based on previous regulatory findings in the United States. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the Tai Mo Shan subsidiary of Jump in December 2024. The SEC alleged that the firm lied to investors regarding the stability of TerraUSD.
The same case concerned the May 2021 de-pegging incident. According to regulators, Jump was motivated to do so by discounted LUNA purchases. Tai Mo Shan paid $123 million but did not confess or deny the fault.
The Terra ecosystem has been reorganized. The initial token is currently trading as Terra Classic. Terra (LUNA), a more recent version, has recently traded close to $0.1085. At the last check, the token had fallen by 6.84% in the last 24 hours.
Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon was recently sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in the U.S. The sentence is connected with his involvement in the Terra and LUNA collapse. He can proceed with another trial in South Korea. In case of extradition and conviction, he might get a sentence of up to 30 years of imprisonment.
Also Read: Do Kwon Requests Reduced Prison Sentence Ahead of TerraUSD Final Case Ruling
