NICHOLAS PLATIAS was one of the co-founders of Terraform Labs, alongside Do Kwon and Daniel Shin.
He built up a vast net worth before the collapse of Luna last year led to a warrant being issued for this arrest.
Who is Nicholas Platias?
Nicholas Platias was born in 1989 in Greece, where he spent the first 18 years of his life.
Platias attended Athens College before moving to the US to study mathematics and computer science at Stanford University.
It was here that he first met Do Kwon, who he would later go to found Terraform Labs with.
“We went to college together in the US and we used to be roommates,” Platias explained in an interview.
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“We went on briefly diverging paths after we graduated from college.
“We both started companies and then I think we both developed an interest in cryptocurrencies that became more, I’d say, pronounced roughly in 2017 when stable coins became more popular.”
While Kwon had brief stints working as as an engineer for Apple and Microsoft before starting his own tech company called Anyfi, Platias went down his own path.
Upon graduating in 2012, he started working as a trading analyst for the National Bank of Greece before moving to a company called Nest a year later. In 2014 he then switched jobs again, working as a software engineer for RelateIQ.
It was in 2015 that Platias decided to start his own company, co-founding Guru Labs. The startup used a modelled risk and fraud in commercial insurance deals.
In January 2018, after reconnecting with Kwon the pair started working on the blockchain payment platform Terraform Labs.
The Greek national explained: “I developed an interest in stable coins and I think Do was thinking of similar problems and we discussed working on something together.”
Living together in an AirBnB the pair set about writing the white paper for the blockchain that would eventually host the Luna cryptocurrency.
Terraform Labs raised an initial of $150million, with a further $32million being added just six months later.
Platias worked as Terraform’s head of research and analytics, staying in the role until the collapse of TerraUSD (UST) and Luna in May 2022.
Where is Nicholas Platias now?
In September 2022, an arrest warrant was issued by South Korea for Nicholas Platias, along with other senior executives of TerraForm.
Platias is thought to have returned to Greece in order to escape the South Korean prosecutors.
According to his LinkedIn, he is now the founder and CEO of a new project called Stealth Web3 Startup.
What is Nicholas Platias’s net worth?
Nicholas Platias was thought to have a net worth of approximately $100million before the collapse of Terraform Labs.
Platias was among a number of executives at the company who had their assets frozen following the Luna
crisis in May 2022.
Belongings such as property were seized by South Korean police.
A prosecution official explained: “We are continuing to investigate the ownership status of the suspects’ assets, and will continue to execute seizure and freeze measures for any identified assets to recover criminal profits and compensate for damages.”
It led to Platias being unable to access much of with money. However, he still receives income from his other ventures.