Disclaimer: The datasets shared in the following article have been compiled from a set of online resources and do not reflect AMBCrypto’s own research on the subject.
The Terra blockchain was created by Terraform Labs in 2018 to host decentralized applications, with the same launched in 2019.
The history of the Terra blockchain and its native currency LUNA has been rather tumultuous, however. Do Kwon and Daniel Shin founded Terraform Labs in Seoul, the South Korean capital, in 2018. The next year, they launched the Terra blockchain and the associated currencies – UST and LUNA – the latter being the support coin of the former.
Over 17 funding rounds, Terraform Labs raised a total of $58 million, its leading investors being Galaxy Digital, Pantera Capital, and Hashed.
It was in order to safeguard investors against the volatility of mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin that the concept of stablecoins originated. A stablecoin has a steady price; as fiat currency is pegged to reserves such as gold, a stablecoin is pegged to either a fiat currency (e.g. USD) or a supporting cryptocurrency.
In this case, TerraUSD was pegged to LUNA. However, herein lies the conflict. A cryptocurrency isn’t an equivalent to gold reserves. As LUNA prices got destabilized, it had an impact on UST prices too, and the entire stablecoin system collapsed.
The stablecoin project was aimed at complementing the price stability and wide adoption of fiat currencies with the decentralized model of cryptocurrency.
Even those who are only vaguely familiar with the cryptocurrency industry know of the apocalyptic collapse of LUNA and UST in May 2022. This collapse was crucial in instigating the cryptocurrency crisis thereafter.
LUNA was one of the market’s
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