Court records from the Southern District of New York show that Judge Paul Engelmayer has asked Kwon to be prepared to present a full statement in court, outlining the elements of the offenses to which he intends to plead guilty. The records also request that his legal team prepare a written version to streamline the process.
Kwon, extradited from Montenegro late last year after more than a year of legal disputes, has been detained in the U.S. without bail since December 2024.
Previously, he had denied nine felony counts - including securities fraud, market manipulation, wire fraud, and money laundering - related to the collapse of the Terra blockchain ecosystem in 2022, which caused the cryptocurrency market to lose about $40 billion.
Authorities struggled to locate Kwon after the incident until officials in Montenegro arrested him for using fake documents.
U.S. prosecutors allege that his actions were the primary cause of Terraform's collapse, while a separate SEC lawsuit was settled in 2024 with a settlement amount of $4.5 billion including fines, restitution, and interest.
It remains unclear whether any agreement has been reached between Kwon's lawyer and federal prosecutors, although court records confirm several months of "productive discussions." The outcome of Tuesday's conference could reshape the direction of the case, which was initially scheduled for trial in January 2026.
This development comes right after this court sentenced Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, for operating an unlicensed money transfer service, demonstrating the U.S. government's decisive stance in high-profile cryptocurrency prosecutions.
