Chapter 145

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“President. There are rumors all over Wall Street right now. It seems the bear funds are really targeting Luna and Terra coins.”

There are two types of attack forces.

One type slowly builds positions while covertly waiting for the right time to attack.

The other type deliberately reveals their position and intentions to the whole world.

The latter case is a strategy of terrorizing investors in that stock and inducing other forces to join the attack.

“Tisla is the best example. The short-selling forces there openly reveal their positions. Sometimes they get burned badly, and sometimes they make a ton of money.”

Tisla’s case falls into the latter.

Isn’t it called Wall Street’s toy?

So just looking at ETF products, there’s a product betting that Tisla’s stock will crash, and conversely there’s also a product betting that that product will fail instead.

The current ETF market was truly a dopamine paradise.

“Plus, the development of SNS and communities is significant. Especially in the coin market, you can find out who’s holding short positions if you dig a little.”

“Above all, the coin market is vulnerable to these kinds of attacks.”

“Yes. So since they’ll get caught anyway, there are more people going in openly.”

In the stock market, if one stock overheats too much, they briefly cool it down. But coins have no safety bar.

Either shoot to Mars or go to the bottom. It’s one or the other.

It was a market where forces could play around very well.

“After Luna and Terra were rejected from listing on our exchange, they seemed to have put out bad articles through various media outlets, but the major media are actually attacking Luna and Terra coins.”

“Should we see it as the attack forces laying groundwork in advance?”

“Yes. They’re just openly warning. They’re going to attack now, so either follow them or die—choose one.”

I wonder how much ammunition they’re holding to act like that.

Rumors are really rampant.

Some say dozens of bear funds are participating in this attack, others say it’s just bluffing.

“With rumors spreading everywhere, prices are already shaking.”

“Is the defense going well?”

“Yes. It seems they’re issuing new coins to keep the value from falling below 1 dollar and holding on.”

“So what do you think will happen? Will they hold out well?”

“Looking at the current flow, when a real attack comes, a death spiral could form.”

Death spiral.

Panic sells overlap repeatedly, everyone gets sucked into the vortex, and the price eventually falls to an unrecoverable level.

“This depends entirely on the developers. While defending against attacks, the price might shake significantly, but if they keep pouring in money and resist to the end, it will eventually normalize. This will only make the foundation stronger.”

In the end, the future is determined by the founders who developed the coin.

“Usually, after making some money, they just run away regardless of whether the price falls—but this Luna/Terra situation has too much money tied up. Already over 40 billion dollars in total. If they do a rug pull on this, the aftermath will be truly enormous.”

“That’s true, right?”

“Yes. If this scale collapses, governments around the world will have no choice but to step in. The damage would be astronomical. The developers would know that too, so they’ll desperately try to defend.”

So the reaction was, surely they wouldn’t do a rug pull.

But every time I looked at Terra coin, my intuition was the same as before.

Black, murky energy was swirling inside.

Just like a death spiral.

“How about our coin?”

“Ah. The developers are already working hard on it. We have many skilled people, so development is expected to proceed quickly. Also, if you purchase the coin, we’re preparing marketing where you can use our platforms at somewhat cheaper prices.”

“What about the interest rate?”

“As a first-sign-up benefit, 10% for one year, then 3-5% after that. Rather than setting a too-high interest rate, isn’t the purpose to enable more active use of our Gwangwoon platforms?”

KW Coin.

Feels good.

My intuition was also emitting golden light from KW Coin.

“Looking at it this way, it feels like making game cash.”

In games, don’t you have to buy money made by the game itself to purchase things inside?

Our coin was that concept.

“If you happen to acquire a game company later, we could let them use our coin then too, haha.”

Acquiring a game company.

Come to think of it, we don’t have a single game company we’ve acquired.

How’s the company of the game we’re playing doing these days?

The recent patches have been somewhat unsatisfying…

————————————————————————————————————————

“…”

20% annual interest rate.

Yeah, I’ll cleanly admit it.

It was all bait.

What product in the world can afford a 20% annual interest rate?

Still, I thought investors would follow if I threw out such bait.

It’s just that too many investors gathered.

“This wasn’t the original plan…”

Before launch, I planned to cleanly cash out once a certain target amount was reached.

Like most coins do.

But with 40 billion dollars gathered, it wasn’t a level where he could escape.

The weight class had grown too big for a rug pull.

“Representative. It seems we’re reaching our limit. The attack is too fierce. To defend here, loans won’t be enough.”

“You want me to put out my hard-earned money now?”

“We have to save the coin first, don’t we? Everyone is panic selling. We’ve already crossed the line. If you show conviction one more time here, investors will feel reassured.”

Loans had already been taken to the limit.

What remained was the founders’ will.

If they gave up all their assets for coin defense and built new defensive lines, supporting forces would definitely emerge.

Like President Zelenkis, who ignited Ukraine’s fighting spirit against Russia’s fierce attack.

“Why do you think I came to Singapore in advance?”

“Pardon?”

“You know too. The 20% interest rate, it was fraud from the beginning. It was never a structure that could last long.”

The exceptional condition of giving 20% interest through DeFi service.

Of course, it was a service that couldn’t be maintained long.

But as the scale grew too large, the DeFi service became overloaded and broke earlier than expected.

“And the biggest problem is the media. Those bastards killed us.”

As soon as Kwon Gu-bo heard that KW Exchange rejected their listing, he requested major media outlets to post articles criticizing KW Exchange.

But the major media all said the same thing.

‘We don’t know about other things, but we can’t touch Gwangwoon.’

He felt Gwangwoon’s influence once again there.

These pens that would swing relentlessly for money regardless of whether the target was a president or whoever—they held onto their reason in front of Gwangwoon.

“They were scared. Because more than a few companies got destroyed after getting on Gwangwoon’s bad side.”

Instead, the major media came out attacking Luna coin.

Saying their system vulnerabilities and 20% annual interest rate was obvious fraud.

They had praised him as Korea’s Mylon Tusk before.

Seeing those articles come out and attacks start immediately after—the conclusion was one.

“Gwangwoon planned this from the beginning.”

They knew Luna coin’s vulnerabilities.

So they blocked entry to KW Exchange, shook the price first through media, then sent the operators they had prepared to destroy the coin.

“Representative, this isn’t the time for this. If we don’t inject funds quickly…”

“What funds? Even if I inject additional funds, nothing will change.”

No. Even if it could change, he couldn’t pour his precious assets into mere price defense and lose them.

The coin was just a means to make money after all.

What’s important is that even if everyone else dies, I survive alone.

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“Wow… this is…”

“It’s like a blender.”

Just as the employees said.

A giant blender was spinning in the Bitcoin market right now.

“In the beginning, it seemed like they were responding well to attacks while taking loans from here and there…”

“They suddenly gave up around the middle?”

“Yeah. It was a level where they could have defended, but they just gave up.”

The power of the forces attacking Luna coin was stronger than expected.

How could it not be?

When media are attacking in unison, how could you withstand that?

But if they had kept pouring in money and shown clear will to defend, the vortex would have stopped midway.

However, the operators cut losses and left first in the middle.

“No matter what, how can you abandon a coin that gathered over 40 billion dollars like this?”

“They got stingy about using their own money. Maybe they planned this from the beginning. It grew bigger than expected, so they got greedier and missed the timing to escape.”

There are hundreds of scam coins that take one big hit and run like this.

But this was the first scam coin of over 40 billion dollars.

“This will probably be an event recorded in coin history. The problem is the lost money is so big that the government won’t just watch.”

“What’s the representative doing? Wasn’t he consistently communicating through SNS?”

“Yes. But contact broke off before this happened, and now he’s completely unreachable. He probably ran away in advance.”

A 40-billion-dollar rug pull.

It’s not that he really took 40 billion dollars.

But you could see 40 billion being ground up in real-time in the blender.

“But… if our KW Exchange had accepted Luna coin, what would have happened?”

“It would have easily exceeded 50 billion dollars.”

This incident was somewhat related to me.

Because our KW Exchange not accepting Luna coin was the trigger.

“You don’t need to feel bad. Even if it came to our exchange, the result would have been the same. This coin was made to scam from the beginning. If they really had conviction in this coin, they would have emptied all their assets to defend the price. They wouldn’t have run away either.”

The manager was right.

Still, feeling some guilt was unavoidable.

“Then President. How about giving some help with the coin our company is issuing this time?”

At Hye-rin’s words, my sunken heart came back with a tingling sensation.

“Help?”

“Yes. The coin we’re issuing this time. How about investigating the victims and supporting them with coins? Well, we can’t support a huge amount, but at a reasonable level. Wouldn’t it create publicity and make our coin trading more active?”

“Distribute coins to people as soon as they’re issued?”

“Yes. Wouldn’t that be good?”

People who were harmed by Luna coin.

We couldn’t solve all the damage they suffered.

Plus there were too many victims, so verifying and giving support coins would be very complicated.

But—

“That’s good.”

Seeing pleasant stimulation come from head to toe meant it was a very good idea.

“Then how much should we set the relief amount at?”

I wrote amounts in my notebook with good intentions.

“…?”

But the amount kept rising.

100 billion, 200 billion, 300 billion—endlessly rising until it finally stopped at one place.

“…1 trillion won.”

“What?!”

“P-President!”

Was it telling me to go big if I was going to do it?

But this wasn’t just refreshing—it was at blizzard level.

————————————————————————————————————————

“Did they catch that son of a bitch?”

“We’re currently tracking Kwon Gu-bo. We’re cooperating with overseas. Singapore was his last known location.”

President Aiden’s already many wrinkles increased more.

How could incidents keep happening one after another?

This time, 40 billion dollars evaporated instantly in the Bitcoin market.

“It’s also possible because it’s the Bitcoin market. It’s not easy for that much money to disappear in such a short time.”

“That’s why we tried to strengthen Bitcoin regulation more, but public opinion was too bad so we withdrew. But can we punish this legally?”

“If we try to tie them up with law, it’s possible. And isn’t the amount too large?”

True.

If the amount was small, it wouldn’t have even reached President Aiden’s ears.

“Plus there’s one more problem. Due to this Luna coin incident, FTX, the world’s second largest, is now in crisis.”

“Why them?”

“Bitcoin prices overall dropped due to this incident, FTX has direct connections to Luna coin, and investment companies supporting both Luna coin and FTX are going bankrupt in succession—so doubts about FTX’s financial health have emerged.”

“It really is dangerous?”

“Yes. It’s not just suspicion—FTX’s financial situation isn’t good. Knowing that, investors are pulling money out, and there are signs of a digital bank run.”

If FTX collapses after Luna coin, even more people will be harmed.

“We don’t need to take responsibility just because people were harmed there, do we?”

“No. There’s no need for a bailout. We’ll hear resentment, but that’s the coin market. However, Gwangwoon’s influence will grow even larger from this.”

Aiden narrowed his brow.

“Yeah, I know what you’re going to say. Gwangwoon controlled everything from behind again, and only they benefited in the end. That’s it, right? This attack was their doing too—I think I know everything now without hearing it.”

“That’s… I was going to say something different.”

“Hm?”

“This time, Gwangwoon says they’ll implement relief for people harmed by Luna coin. By distributing a whopping 1 trillion won.”

“What?! 1 trillion won? They’re doing a bailout that even we’re not doing?”

Strange bastards.

What did they gain from doing a bailout of all things?

“If FTX closes, everyone will flow to KW Exchange anyway, right? Wasn’t that why they attacked Luna coin? Then they wouldn’t need to promote that much?”

“Yes. But if you look inside carefully, this is only a bailout on the surface—the reality is different. KW Exchange is issuing a new stablecoin like Luna coin this time.”

“Wait. Then don’t tell me the bailout is in that coin?”

“Yes. If they distribute about 1 trillion won worth of coins, inflation would normally occur, but that means they have funds sufficient to handle that.”

With Gwangwoon’s scale, they wouldn’t pathetically collapse like Luna.

“Well, if they want to promote coins that way, can we stop them?”

Aiden quickly moved on.

Didn’t thousands of coins pour out every day?

“Mr. President, this matter shouldn’t be viewed simply.”

“Aren’t new coins pouring out every day anyway?”

“Yes. But this one is different. KW Coin can be used on all platforms operated by Gwangwoon Group. Literally all apps.”

“It can be used like currency?”

“Yes. That’s exactly it. Unlike other coins, a coin that can really be used like currency. That’s what Gwangwoon is about to release to the world now.”

“…!?”

Only then did Aiden realize the severity of the situation.

A coin that can be used like currency.

Why Gwangwoon opened KW Exchange and entered the Bitcoin market early.

Why they so persistently brought down competitors and grew in size.

Now he understood.

“Don’t tell me these bastards…”

What is Bitcoin’s philosophy?

Decentralization.

“Gwangwoon is trying to create a new decentralized currency and become its master.”

The owner of the new generation currency.

That was Gwangwoon’s goal.