The Chopping Block: Kevin Zhou on Why He Knew Terra Would Crash - Ep.353

Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in the digital asset industry. On this episode, Kevin Zhou, the CEO of Galois Capital and long-time critic of UST, also joined the conversation. Show topics:

• the UST depeg and Terra collapse 
• Kevin on what it was like being one of the earliest naysayers of LUNA
• why Kevin believes that UST initially depegged and became a “fear cascade”
• how Galois Capital traded the UST depeg, from shorting LUNA to keeping their UST in Anchor until the last moment
• why Kevin was disappointed in the lack of transparency in how Luna Foundation Guard attempted to defend the UST peg
• the implications of UST’s collapse across the crypto and traditional financial markets 
• whether Terra’s decline will lead to more regulation in the crypto industry
• why Anchor was the “cancer” of the Terra system 
• why VCs are reticent to say something bad about protocols they don’t believe in
• why grifting is so much more prevalent in crypto 
• what Jump Trading had to do with the Terra collapse
• the difference between the way trading and VC firms interact with crypto
• the issues with the Terra 2 proposal without UST
• which chains are receiving the people leaving the Terra ecosystem 
• why Haseeb compared the collapse of UST to the collapse of the Soviet Union
• who Kevin believes should be reimbursed in the aftermath of the UST collapse
• how political considerations might affect how Terra continues to develop going forward
• why Terra NFTs were skyrocketing during the Terra meltdown
• whether crypto is in a bear or bull market

Hosts

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital
• https://twitter.com/hosseeb
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital
• https://twitter.com/tomhschmidt
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
• https://twitter.com/tarunchitra 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound 
• https://twitter.com/rleshner 

Guest

• Kevin Zhou, CEO of Galois Capital
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-zhou-82938324/ 

Previous Unchained Coverage

• Nic Carter, Erik Voorhees, and Eric Wall on the collapse of UST
• https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-terra-collapsed-and-whether-an-algo-stablecoin-can-ever-succeed/ 
• Do Kwon on backing UST with BTC
• ​​https://unchainedpodcast.com/do-kwon-is-backing-ust-with-bitcoin-and-heres-what-else-he-is-building/
• Kevin Zhou on the risk of UST’s death spiral
• https://unchainedpodcast.com/heres-why-usdn-depegged-from-the-dollar-and-why-ust-might-too/ 
• Jon Wu on how Terra got depegged:
• https://unchainedpodcast.com/did-someone-deliberately-attack-terra-luna-to-kick-off-a-death-spiral/
• Do Kwon on The Chopping Block
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xl8u7-KVwM 

Haseeb’s summary of the Terra collapse:

• https://medium.com/dragonfly-research/the-reign-of-terra-the-rise-and-fall-of-ust-208dabbc8e6e

Jon Wu’s write-up on the UST Depeg

• Article: https://www.notboring.co/p/terra-to-the-moon-and-back 
• Thread: https://twitter.com/jonwu_/status/1523793482850050048?s=20&t=lvB1zdz98wu5TE5emh4fCw 

Terra Background Info 

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/terra_money 
• UST Mechanics: https://angelprotocol.medium.com/how-does-ust-work-ec7b2f6e2c2c
• UST Bank Run: https://www.wsj.com/articles/crash-of-terrausd-shakes-crypto-there-was-a-run-on-the-bank-11652371839
• Speculation of a deliberate attack: https://onchainwizard.substack.com/p/how-to-make-800m-in-crypto-soros?s=r
• Do Kwon’s Proposed Terra’s Revival: https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2022/05/13/do-kwon-proposes-restart-of-terra-blockchain-as-ust-luna-plummet/
• Anchor: https://twitter.com/anchor_protocol 
• Terra 2.0: https://unchainedpodcast.com/do-kwon-has-a-new-plan-again/ 

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