Binance founder says he is ‘poor again’ following devastating crash of the Luna cryptocurrency

The founder of Binance has joked that he is “poor again” after losing billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency following the market’s crash.

In a tweet on Monday, Chanpeng Zhao said that Binance held 15 million Luna tokens. Last week, the price of the Terra (LUNA) cryptocurrency has fallen by more than 99 per cent, wiping out the fortunes of crypto investors.

Binance had received the tokens in exchange for its $3 million investment in 2018 into the Terra network that is the foundation of Luna.

However, Mr Zhao maintains a net worth of approximately $14.8 billion, rooted from his 70 per cent stake in Binance.

As well as Luna, TerrraUSD also dropped significantly in price. Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) also continued to trade close to 18-month lows.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index was at its lowest level since March 2020 when pandemic-induced panic caused a sell-off that pushed the price of bitcoin below $5,000.

However, Bitcoin is now trading at just below $30,000 on Thursday, marking a 56 per cent drop from its all-time high last November.

Mr Zhao had urged the Terra team to prioritising reimburse its retail investors. "To lead by example on PROTECTING USERS, Binance will let this go and ask the Terra project team to compensate the retail users first, Binance last, if ever," he tweeted.

The origins of what caused TerraUSD to lose its value has sparked conspiracy theories, with one popular hypothesis suggesting that someone deliberately dumped $350 million worth of UST.

By doing so, the Luna Foundation Guard - which stockpiled roughly $3.5 billion in bitcoin and other cryptocurrency in the months leading up to the crisis - would be forced to offload its bitcoin, thus causing its price to drop, and potentially allowing people to hold short positions on Bitcoin.