The global crypto mayhem last week wiped out Bitcoin worth $3.5 billion -- created to defend and support the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin which saw a total crash -- and no one has any idea how such a large sum of funds disappeared. Nearly 80,394 Bitcoin worth $3.5 billion were purchased by the <keyword id="12996929" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Luna-Foundation-Guard" source="Orion">Luna Foundation Guard</keyword>, the non-profit organisation set up to promote the growth of the <keyword id="13947876" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Terra-ecosystem" source="Orion">Terra ecosystem</keyword> this year, according to Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. CoinDesk reported that while untold billions in value and wealth were lost when those reserves proved inadequate to prevent a "depegging" last week, what no one knows is what happened to those reserves and where they are now. <keyword id="11973832" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="terra" source="Orion">Terra</keyword> Labs CEO Do Kwon tweeted that they were "currently working on documenting the use of the LFG BTC reserves during the depegging event. "I've spent the last few days on the phone calling Terra community members - builders, community members, employees, friends and family, who have been devastated by UST depegging," Kwon said in a tweet thread. The UST coin is designed to retain a value of one US dollar at all times but was depegged last week, and fell to just 17 cents. <keyword id="216973" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="luna" source="Orion">Luna</keyword>'s value collapsed in one of the most stunning crypto crashes ever recorded. In total, over $15 billion in cryptocurrency value was wiped after the TerraUSD stablecoin collapsed. In the case of Luna Foundation Guard, Elliptic followed the money to major exchanges Gemini and Binance. According to the Blockchain analytics firm, 52,189 BTC was moved to a single account at US crypto exchange Gemini, via several Bitcoin transactions. The remaining 28,205 Bitcoin in Terra's reserves were "moved in their entirety, in a single transaction, to an account at the cryptocurrency exchange Binance". "It is not possible to identify whether these assets were sold or subsequently moved to other wallets," Tom Robinson, co-founder and chief scientist at Elliptic, was quoted as saying. "All we can see is it going into these exchanges," Robinson told CoinDesk. The whereabouts of $3.5 billion still remain a mystery. " Neither I nor any institutions that I am affiliated with profited in any way from this incident. I sold no Luna nor UST during the crisis," according to Kwon, Terra Labs CEO. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/the-terra-luna-crypto-crash-has-sparked-the-debate-on-true-decentralisation/articleshow/91586055.cms">The Terra LUNA crypto crash has sparked the debate on ‘true’ decentralisation</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/quint-digital-media-up-9-as-adani-group-to-buy-49-stake-in-the-media-house/articleshow/91591526.cms">Quint Digital Media up 9% as Adani Group to buy 49% stake in the media house</a>

Crypto mystery: Around $3.5 billion worth of Bitcoin in Terra has just disappeared

<ul><li>Terra’s LUNA token is up by more than 3% since yesterday, while other cryptocurrencies continue to struggle</li><li>The surge comes on the back of <keyword id="6359140" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="binance" source="Orion">Binance</keyword> completing LUNA’s integration into the exchange and activating deposits for the altcoin.</li><li><keyword id="12996929" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="luna-foundation-guard" source="Orion">LUNA Foundation Guard</keyword> also announced its formation with the aim of supporting new projects that use Terra’s stablecoins.</li><li>Moreover Terra is stepping into the <keyword id="11121339" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="metaverse" source="Orion">metaverse</keyword> with Robohero, a play-to-earn game that uses the LUNA cryptocurrency.</li></ul>Terra’s LUNA cryptocurrency is the only major player in the space to gain above 3% in the last 24 hours. The token is one of very few to make price gains over the past week, even amidst a bear market. While the <a href="http://coindcx.com">cryptocurrency</a> wasn’t spared from the initial crypto crash, which saw its price plummet from an all-time-high of ₹7,693 in December — it has been climbing back up since and is currently trading at ₹6,134. Reasons for why LUNA has been able to hold its own range from the formation of the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) to the launch of RoboHero, a <keyword id="12996928" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="metaverse-game" source="Orion">metaverse game</keyword> for smartphones based on the LUNA token. <a href="https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/ce99cf0612174b30bfec0400acf8e0af">Binance</a> too has completed LUNA’s integration into the exchange and activated deposits for the altcoin. Ever since it broke into the top ten cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalisation last year, LUNA has more than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/to-the-moon-terras-luna-crypto-coin-has-shot-up-almost-80-in-a-week-vaulting-past-shiba-inu-and-avalanche/articleshow/88074641.cms">doubled</a> its price over the course of a year. Showing no signs of a slowdown yet, LUNA is seen to have the wind on its sail lately, with at least three positive influences. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="LUNA Foundation Guard (LFG) established" comment="subhead" text="LUNA Foundation Guard (LFG) established">LUNA Foundation Guard (LFG) established</cmsannotation> Intended to grow the Terra ecosystem and help stabilise it, the LFG is a non-profit organisation. LFG has been<a href="https://medium.com/terra-money/formation-of-the-luna-foundation-guard-lfg-6b8dcb5e127b"> gifted 50 million</a> LUNA tokens by Terraform Labs, the company that operates the LUNA token. In a<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/luna-foundation-guard-lfg-officially-003000734.html"> press release</a>, the LFG is stated to have two major goals – funding decentralised finance (DeFi) projects that utilise Terra’s stablecoins, and building a reserve to maintain Terra’s dollar-pegged stablecoin. Olympus DAO, Rari Fuse, Convex Finance and Tokemak are some of the crypto projects to whom Terra<a href="https://agora.terra.money/t/ust-goes-interchain-degen-strats-part-three/3527"> was discussing fund</a> allocation. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="RoboHero: Metaverse game for smartphones that uses LUNA" comment="subhead" text="RoboHero: Metaverse game for smartphones that uses LUNA">RoboHero: Metaverse game for smartphones that uses LUNA</cmsannotation> RoboHero is a game<a href="https://robohero.io/roadmap"> in development</a>, which made a splash since releasing a<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0EC089aAlU"> video trailer</a> last week. It is a metaverse game that lets players battle each other using<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/mechanical-beings-come-to-life-in-the-first-ever-play-to-earn-game-designed-for-smartphones-and-integrated-with-terra"> ‘BioRobots’</a>, while trading using ROBO tokens in-game. The developers have said it will be a play-to-earn (P2E) game, meaning rewards can be accumulated and traded for real-world cash. It will also feature NFTs, billboard ads, and give the player money just for watching ads (Watch 2 Earn). When completed, players can play RoboHero on their smartphone, and buy ROBO tokens using LUNA cryptocurrency. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Terra UST stablecoin rises three-fold" comment="subhead" text="Terra UST stablecoin rises three-fold">Terra UST stablecoin rises three-fold</cmsannotation> The UST is a major, but just one of the stablecoins maintained by Terra. Between November 2021 and mid-January 2022, the circulating value of Terra UST<a href="https://messari.io/asset/terrausd"> rose three-fold</a>, from less than $3 billion to $11.06 billion today.<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/11/10/terra-passes-highly-anticipated-proposal-to-burn-nearly-89m-luna/"> Changes in LUNA</a> supply is seen to have enabled the steep rise in its circulating market capitalisation value. Such a rise encouraged the founder of Terra to<a href="https://twitter.com/stablekwon/status/1473101249117515780"> tweet a wish</a>, indicating desire to become dominant among stablecoins. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="What is Terra’s LUNA cryptocurrency" comment="subhead" text="What is Terra’s LUNA cryptocurrency">What is Terra’s LUNA cryptocurrency</cmsannotation> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/terra-is-the-second-biggest-defi-player-in-the-crypto-market-but-it-may-be-overvalued/articleshow/88412814.cms">Terra</a>, the promoter of the LUNA token says this blockchain intends to create a better digital financial system. LUNA allows smart contracts and building dApps on top of the Terra network, including DeFi protocols such as Anchor and Mirror. Eschewing powerful mining networks, the currency issuance mechanism of Terra helps reduce <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/energy-consumption-is-a-constant-concern-in-crypto-mining-but-more-sustainable-practices-are-emerging/articleshow/84444051.cms">energy consumption</a>. Terra uses the day-to-day price stability of fiat currencies, to create ‘stablecoins’ – similar to how Tether uses the US Dollar as a peg to create the USDT cryptocurrency. Thus <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/terras-stablecoin-ust-trumps-makerdaos-dai-with-5x-increase-in-valuation-this-year/articleshow/88613563.cms">Terra offers a basket of stablecoin</a> currencies, pegged to the likes of the US Dollar, Euro, IMF SDR, British Pound, Japanese Yen, and South Korean Won. When transaction volumes of these currencies increase, Terra sells the native LUNA to get price stability — liquidity to match the fiat currency in circulation. When transaction volumes decrease, Terra buys back LUNA. This does mean intra-day volatility for the LUNA token, structured intentionally to minimise volatility of Terra’s stablecoins. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/cardano-jumps-on-the-metaverse-bandwagon-with-pavia-heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-adas-entry-into-play-to-earn/articleshow/89012262.cms">Cardano jumps on the metaverse bandwagon with Pavia — here’s everything you need to know about ADA’s entry into play-to-earn</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/coindcx-hiring-2000-plus-people-this-year-crypto-coders-developers-product-development-and-other-roles/articleshow/88972086.cms">EXCLUSIVE: CoinDCX plans to hire more than 2,000 people this year — and they are not just looking at coders</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/one-of-the-largest-cryptocurrency-swapping-platforms-just-lost-1-3-million-as-users-failed-to-update-approvals/articleshow/88992186.cms">One of the largest cryptocurrency swapping platforms just lost $1.3 million as users failed to update approvals</a>

Terra's LUNA token continues to hold its own even in a crypto bear market — here's why

<ul class="summary-list"><li>TerraUSD founder <keyword id="13913818" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="do-kwon" source="Orion">Do Kwon</keyword> proposed a plan to revive the wrecked <keyword id="12507550" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="terra" source="Orion">Terra</keyword> ecosystem late Monday. </li><li>He suggested hard forking the <keyword id="13926133" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="terra-blockchain" source="Orion">Terra blockchain</keyword> and abandoning the failed UST stablecoin. </li></ul>TerraUSD founder Do Kwon has put forward a new "revival plan" for the Terra ecosystem, after the collapse of its stablecoin and sister token <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/luna-usd">luna</a> fed a wider cryptocurrency meltdown last week.The <keyword id="11893898" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto" source="Orion">crypto</keyword> entrepreneur called for a hard fork of the existing Terra blockchain, which would involve ditching the failed terraUSD stablecoin altogether and creating a new community-owned chain.He suggested in a <a href="https://agora.terra.money/t/terra-ecosystem-revival-plan-2/18498">blog post</a> Monday that the old chain could be dubbed "Terra Classic" with its token renamed "luna classic" (LUNC). The new chain would be known as Terra and its native token would take on the luna (LUNA) name. "$UST peg failure is Terra's DAO hack moment — a chance to rise up anew from the ashes," Kwon said in the post, in apparent reference to the hard fork of ethereum after the <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/dao-hacker-identity-stole-11-billion-2016-ether-revealed-2022-2">2016 hack of crypto collective The DAO</a>. "The Terra ecosystem and its community are worth preserving," the Terraform Labs co-founder added. The terraUSD (UST) and luna projects run by Terraform Labs crumbled and helped spur <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitcoin-price-today-cryptocurrencies-crash-as-rout-intensifies-2022-5?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">crypto market bloodbath last week</a> over concerns about a <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/terra-terrausd-luna-ust-stablecoin-plunge-do-kwon-death-spiral-2022-5">UST death spiral</a> could hit other coins. The algorithmic stablecoin lost its peg to the dollar and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/terra-terrausd-luna-ust-stablecoin-plunge-do-kwon-death-spiral-2022-5">tumbled as low as $0.30</a> on Wednesday, while <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/luna-usd&amp;sa=D&amp;source=docs&amp;ust=1652785063027424&amp;usg=AOvVaw3ffX2iK4Ef5JkFErZs1Q8S">luna</a> sank more than 97%. Under the proposal, people who hold luna on the existing Classic chain will get an airdrop of the new luna token, as will the blockchain's developers and UST holders. Terraform Labs won't receive any of the 1 billion new tokens distributed, as its wallet will be removed.The airdrop will go ahead by May 27, depending on whether the proposal gets the green light in a vote expected to begin Wednesday.Kwon reiterated that he is looking to "compensate remaining users" of UST following the stablecoin's crash. In a <a href="https://twitter.com/stablekwon/status/1526258273820651520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1526258273820651520%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2022-05-16%2Fdo-kwon-proposes-creating-another-blockchain-from-terra-s-ashes">series of tweets</a> Monday, the Luna Foundation Guard, headed by Kwon, said the non-profit organization is "looking to use its remaining assets to compensate remaining users of $UST, smallest holders first." The proposal builds on an <a href="https://agora.terra.money/t/terra-ecosystem-revival-plan/8701">earlier revival plan</a> floated by Kwon on Friday. In response to the discussion around that, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao forking the blockchain wouldn't work."Personal opinion. NFA. Forking does not give the new fork any value. That's wishful thinking," Zhao said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1525448766274289664">weekend tweet</a>.The collapse of the Terra ecosystem could spur lawmakers to hasten the development of regulation around cryptocurrencies, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said Monday. The Securities and Exchange Commission has called the crypto space the "Wild West" for its lack of protection for consumers and prevalent scams.Luna sank almost 9% on the day to reach $0.0001907 on Tuesday morning, according to <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/terra-usd">CoinMarketCap data</a>. It has plunged almost 100% from its all-time high of $119.18 hit on April 5, but is off its all-time low of $0.000000999967. UST was trading further below its dollar peg, down 2.4% to $0.1243.The collapse of the crypto market came against the backdrop of increasing investor angst over high-risk assets as the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/what-is-the-federal-reserve?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">Federal Reserve</a> tightens its grip on its ultra-easy money policy by hiking interest rates to combat red-hot inflation. Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-crash-bonds-crypto-retail-investing-cash-is-king-2022-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cash is king for retail traders right now, according to 7 investors who expect a prolonged bear market for stocks, bonds, and cryptocurrencies</a>

The founder of collapsed stablecoin TerraUSD wants to build another blockchain from its network's ashes

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The CEO of <keyword id="11893898" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto" source="Orion">crypto</keyword> platform <keyword id="11931192" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="circle" source="Orion">Circle</keyword> says TerraUSD's crash will help fast-track crypto regulation. </li><li>Jeremy Allaire said the crypto "blowup" has accelerated the need for tighter grips on the industry.</li></ul>The chief executive of cryptocurrency company Circle said the recent collapse of major stablecoin TerraUSD and other tokens has given legislators fuel to speed up crypto regulation. "When you have a major blowup, it's certainly going to accelerate the need for Congress to act and establish some perimeters around who and what is involved in operating a dollar stablecoin in the United States of America," Jeremy Allaire said in a Monday interview with <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/terra-collapse-could-accelerate-crypto-regulation-by-legislators-circle-ceo-161634681.html">Yahoo Finance</a>.Last week, the cryptocurrency <keyword id="11995361" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="market" source="Orion">market</keyword> recently experienced a savage sell-off that saw the prices of <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/eth-usd?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">ether</a>, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/ada-usd?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">cardano</a>, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/sol-sol?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">solana</a>, and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/usd-doge?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">dogecoin</a> tumble. It came on the back of TerraUSD and sister coin luna tanking in what experts labeled a "death spiral." TerraUSD (UST), which was supposed to be pegged to the dollar, had tumbled to $0.375 last week in a <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/terra-peg-dollar-luna-stablecoin-crypto-and-stokes-fears-bitcoin-2022-5?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">dramatically "de-peg"</a> while luna, which is free-floating, sank 97% to effectively trade at zero. TerraUSD was last trading at just $0.088 on Tuesday after falling 17% in the early hours of the day, while <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/luna-usd&amp;sa=D&amp;source=docs&amp;ust=1652793325854920&amp;usg=AOvVaw0Lg1NEdAUCgvOVL0_tVZ2h">luna</a> was down 7% trading at $0.00018188 at 8:15 ET. Luna hit an all-time high of $119.18 on April 5, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/">according to CoinMarketCap</a>. Allaire said the downfall of these "unstable stablecoins," such as UST was "entirely predictable," adding that there are several "very viable legislative proposals" on the table for the US government to tighten grips on the crypto industry as a result. He went on to address the impact the damage the crash has left on the crypto industry as a whole. "I think it's hurt retail investors, the ecosystem as a whole, and so there's been some damage done," Allaire said. Individuals have also been left scarred by TerraUSD's crash, he added. "The really unfortunate thing here is that so many individuals and leaders in the digital asset space bought the hype, promoted the hype, and I think that's hurt people." Circle runs the USDC stablecoin, which has remained anchored at 1:1 to the dollar throughout the turmoil elsewhere.His comments echo sentiments expressed by the cofounder of ethereum <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/terrausd-luna-crash-ethereum-vitalik-buterin-do-kwon-stablecoin-crypto-2022-5">Vitalik Buterin</a> who thinks holders of TerraUSD and luna should be compensated following the collapse.Buterin also alluded to subsequent government intervention, like Allaire, saying a government backstop was an "<a href="https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1525562865016483841?s=20&amp;t=Z7jbaU2I2OUc_xryw9XK8Q">obvious precedent</a>" in reimbursing people who have lost assets, referencing coverage of $250,000 per person. The Luna Foundation Guard, spearheaded by founder Do Kwon, piped up about the roughly 3.5 billion worth of bitcoin that disappeared after a crypto bloodbath last week. In a tweet Monday, the non-profit organization, announced it sold almost all of the bitcoin in its reserve in an attempt to defend the stablecoin backed by blockchain <keyword id="12507550" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="terra" source="Orion">Terra</keyword>, known as TerraUSD (UST), from crashing. According to the tweet, nearly 80,394 bitcoin were purchased by the Luna Foundation Guard amounting to over $3 billion, but as of Monday, the organization said it had just 313 bitcoins worth about $9.3 million, left in its reserve. The foundation said it would use the remaining reserves to "compensate users of UST," starting with "smallest holders first." "We are still debating through various distribution methods, updates to follow soon," Luna Foundation Guard said.

Circle CEO says Terra's implosion has given lawmakers the impetus to speed up crypto regulation

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="13891032" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="terrausd" source="Orion">TerraUSD</keyword> fell below its $1 peg in a weekend selloff.</li><li>The fall of the token and its sister coin luna put the spotlight on <keyword id="13891031" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="algorithmic-stablecoins" source="Orion">algorithmic stablecoins</keyword>. </li></ul>The recent plunge of the <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/terra-usd">TerraUSD</a> cryptocurrency below its peg to the US dollar is highlighting vulnerabilities in so-called algorithmic <keyword id="11931190" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="stablecoins" source="Orion">stablecoins</keyword>, two experts told Insider. TerraUSD is the fourth-largest stablecoin in the cryptocurrency market, according to <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/view/stablecoin/">CoinMarketCap,</a> but its market cap has been more than halved to $7 billion in less than a week. Heavy selling in TerraUSD — or UST — that started <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/terra-peg-dollar-luna-stablecoin-crypto-and-stokes-fears-bitcoin-2022-5">over the weekend</a> prompted it to lose its $1 peg, with Wednesday's move taking it as low as $0.298, according to CoinGecko data.UST's price is maintained by its sister coin called <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/terra-luna">luna</a>, which itself on <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/terra-terrausd-luna-ust-stablecoin-plunge-do-kwon-death-spiral-2022-5">Wednesday tumbled by as much as 97%</a>. Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs, the group behind UST, said Tuesday he was <a href="https://twitter.com/stablekwon/status/1524049689510694916">working on a recovery plan</a>. <iframe width="1" height="1" frameborder="0"></iframe>"The problem with an algorithmic stablecoin is there's no formula that can currently predict everything that's going to happen, and to my knowledge, there isn't a very successful Artificial Intelligence algorithm that self-adjusts," Mark Fidelman, direct of SmartBlocks, an agency that develops marketing strategies for cryptocurrency technology and businesses, told Insider on Tuesday. He's also the host of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdydg2MsKIAm4KL3tU97rhw">"Cryptonized" podcast</a> on YouTube. The value of algorithmic stablecoins is set by a computer algorithm. Those digital assets are unlike so-called traditional stablecoins which are backed up by assets such as fiat currency or government bonds or gold.There's a balancing act in UST as traders are incentivized by profit to maintain the coin's dollar peg. If UST drops below $1, traders can take them out of circulation by "burning" them in exchange for $1 of luna. If UST climbs above $1, traders sell luna to convert into UST, pushing its price down. Crypto observers over the weekend reportedly witnessed large withdrawals of UST from Anchor Protocol, which acts as a bank for the token. One big holder dumped $285 million worth of the token, <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/terra-peg-mechanism-in-doubt-as-ust-crashes-to-67-cents">crypto news site CoinTelegraph reported</a>.The <a href="https://lfg.org/">Luna Foundation Guard</a>, a non-profit aimed at growing the terra ecosystem and that oversees that UST holds its peg to the dollar, <a href="https://twitter.com/stablekwon/status/1523532474860539905">deployed $1.5 billion in capital</a> to allay market concerns around UST. UST, however, de-pegged for a second time and luna slid in value. The foundation said Monday it loaned $750 million worth of bitcoin to trading firms to help protect the UST peg and loaned 750 million in UST to accumulate bitcoin as market conditions normalized. The Luna Foundation's reserves as of Tuesday <a href="https://datastudio.google.com/reporting/b31cc9e5-c54c-4418-a6ce-b332c57e82e9/page/4YBqC?s=or-T7NeGLew">stood at $195 million</a>, a drop of 83% from the previous day, according to a breakdown of its reserves the foundation <a href="https://twitter.com/LFG_org/status/1512678523546345474">makes available on its Twitter page</a>. The reserves were made of the <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/avax-usd">Avalanche</a> token, the luna token and UST itself. "When pressure was put on it and the underlying assets associated with it started to decline and the reserves couldn't fill that staking, then the peg breaks," Adam Carlton, chief executive of PinkPanda Holdings, told Insider. PinkPanda provides consulting services on digital assets and is building a mobile app for users to access <keyword id="11895317" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cryptocurrencies" source="Orion">cryptocurrencies</keyword>, NFTs and the metaverse. The UST and luna price drops came after a rough week for US equities as investors continued to price in expectations for the Federal Reserve to aggressively raise interest rates to cool down inflation that in March kicked up to a 41-year high. Cryptocurrencies including bitcoin also suffered losses alongside the broader equity market. "Theoretically [holding the dollar peg] works when you don't have market volatility or you have reserves but what we saw with UST is it doesn't work when you have extreme market volatility, which we know is incredibly common in cryptocurrency," said Carlton. Last week, LFG said it had bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin to add to its reserves. It has said in the past it intends to acquire $10 billion in bitcoin for its reserves."The problem is you're collateralizing now a cryptocurrency with yet another cryptocurrency. So there's just no tie into real-world assets," said Carlton. "Everyone has put US dollars into all these funds – they put it into bitcoin, they put it into UST, they put it into luna," said Carlton. "And then as people sell and withdraw back into fiat, they all decline … so it's a very much a compounding effect." There are some stablecoins that are "pretty predictable," enough so that institutions use them, said Fidelman."So if one of the pillars of that foundation breaks then it calls a lot of other things into the question. Cryptos are an emerging, new market and there needs to be more confidence in it for new people, new investors, new institutions to get involved in it," he said. "Now, is it going to be devastating to crypto? Absolutely not. But you can see some of the impact - whether it's related to luna or not - that it's having on the overall crypto market," Fidelman said.

A controversial stablecoin is 'breaking the buck.' Here's what that means, and why it's such a big deal.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Terraform Labs founder and CEO Do Kwon said the company had added 5,000 <keyword id="11893902" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bitcoin" source="Orion">bitcoin</keyword> in a tweet on Wednesday. </li><li>Its bitcoin reserve is now worth $1.6 billion with a goal of reaching $10 billion to back its terraUSD stablecoin.</li></ul>Terraform Labs founder and chief executive Do Kwon <a href="https://twitter.com/stablekwon/status/1511614014517755909?s=20&amp;t=zH7Z4TQAzx5K_omRi7Xpeg">said</a> on Wednesday he had purchased $230 million worth of bitcoin through the Luna Foundation Guard, with the aim of adding it to the company's bitcoin reserves."Today I watered my plant, wrote some emails, bought 230M in bitcoin, vacuumed the house, had some mcdonalds, now off to walk the dog," Do Kwon said on Twitter.<blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" data-lang="en" data-cards="" data-conversation="">—Do Kwon (@stablekwon) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1511614014517755909">April 6, 2022</a></blockquote>The purchase was made to add to Terraform Labs' reserves through its non-profit organization <a href="https://lfg.org/">Luna Foundation Group</a> as part of the backing for its <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/ust-usd">terraUSD</a> stablecoin. <a href="https://twitter.com/stablekwon/status/1503296630396645376?s=20&amp;t=VcQp7h794sRhiUOTdgWEcw">Last month, Kwon</a> said terraUSD would be backed by at least $10 billion worth of bitcoin, among other assets.<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/cryptocurrencies/cryptocurrency-explained-what-are-stablecoins-cbdcs-bitcoin-tether-ethereum-2021-7?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">Stablecoins</a> are digital currencies pegged to assets such as the US dollar, which have experienced a rise in popularity over the past year, as they represent a more stable investment than other more volatile cryptocurrencies. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/ust-usd">TerraUSD</a> is the fourth largest stablecoin by market value behind tether, USDC and Binance USD, according to CoinMarket Cap. Unlike most dollar-backed stablecoins, terraUSD is not backed by the US currency. "<keyword id="12507550" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="terra" source="Orion">Terra</keyword>'s family of stablecoins is maintained through a system of arbitrage incentives, open market operations, and dynamic protocol levers that maintain robust peg stability and scalability of its supply without the centralized control or capital-inefficient designs of incumbents," according to the <a href="https://lfg.org/missionandvision/">Luna Foundation Guard website</a>. TerraUSD is an algorithmic stablecoin, which it uses a swap mechanism that keeps its value pegged at $1. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqpGMoYZMhY">The algorithm destroys, or burns, luna tokens in order to create new terraUSD tokens</a>. So any luna holder can swap $1 worth of luna to $1 terraUSD. This makes luna tokens more scarce and terraUSD less scarce, so that the value of terraUSD always end up back at $1. If terraUSD falls below $1, the opposite happens, meaning more luna tokens and less terraUSD supply, which then brings the value back up to $1.Wednesday's purchase brings the value of Terraform Labs' bitcoin holdings to $1.6 billion, part of the way towards its target of $10 billion.Terraform's <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/luna-usd">luna</a> token hit an all-time high of almost $119 last week, according to CoinMarketCap data, while it has since retreated from these highs the coin is still up 4.34% over the past seven days, trading at $109.67.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-vc-family-offices-blockchain-investing-lennertz-co-oksana-tiedt-2022-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">An exclusive European multifamily office started exploring blockchain investing in 2017. Its head of funds shares how it made early high-conviction bets on big names in crypto VC — and identifies 2 under-the-radar firms to know</a>.

Terra Foundation adds $230 million bitcoin to its reserves to back its stablecoin

The global cryptocurrency market entered its worst phase ever on Tuesday, with <keyword id="6354947" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bitcoin" source="Orion">Bitcoin</keyword> dropping below $30,000 per coin and leaving millions of investors in a panic mode. The overall global cryptocurrency market dropped 13 per cent, and was hovering around $1.37 trillion market cap, which is its lowest this year. Bitcoin was more than 55 per cent down since its all-time high of $69,000 in November last year. Other digital coins also suffered double-digit-percentage drops, led by Cardano (20 per cent), Solana (16 per cent), XRP (13 per cent), BNB (16 per cent), and Ethereum (10 per cent), Decrypt reported. Experts said that rising interest rates, along with weakening economic activity, has created a risk-off environment. Terraform Labs (TFL), the organisation behind UST, cryptocurrency LUNA, and Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) emptied its treasury wallet of all of its bitcoin (about 42,530 bitcoin) or $1.3 billion. The UST stablecoin lost its 1:1 dollar peg ratio for the second time in the past three days and dropped as much as 5.3 per cent to 95 cents on Monday, reports TechCrunch. The decline can be attributed to nervousness over the US Federal Reserve's determination to tackle inflation. The Fed last week announced an interest rate increase of 50 basis points. In what could further dampen the mood of crypto investors in the country, the goods and services tax (GST) council in India is also mulling a 28 per cent tax on cryptocurrencies, at par with the current GST on casinos, betting and lottery. Bitcoin accounts for about a third of the cryptocurrency market with nearly $650 billion in value. Bitcoin investors are likely to lose up to $545 million this year, owing to various reasons like forgetting passwords to their wallets or making a mistake in recording their "seed phrases", according to a new report. A seed phrase is a series of words generated by your cryptocurrency wallet that give you access to the crypto associated with that wallet. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/bitcoin-has-plummeted-53-from-its-all-time-high-as-crypto-follows-broader-markets-lower-amid-investors-fears-of-tighter-fed-policy/articleshow/91450342.cms">Bitcoin has plummeted 53% from its all-time high as crypto follows broader markets lower amid investors' fears of tighter Fed policy</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/cryptocurrency/news/crypto-tax-in-india-government-may-levy-28-percent-gst/articleshow/91439216.cms">India may expand taxes on crypto beyond IT and TDS – government reportedly mulling 28% GST</a>

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Crypto mystery: Around $3.5 billion worth of Bitcoin in Terra has just disappeared

IANS

Terra's LUNA token continues to hold its own even in a crypto bear market — here's why

Madana Prathap

The founder of collapsed stablecoin TerraUSD wants to build another blockchain from its network's ashes

Zahra Tayeb

Circle CEO says Terra's implosion has given lawmakers the impetus to speed up crypto regulation

Zahra Tayeb

A controversial stablecoin is 'breaking the buck.' Here's what that means, and why it's such a big deal.

Carla Mozée

Terra Foundation adds $230 million bitcoin to its reserves to back its stablecoin

Adam Morgan McCarthy

The crypto market is in a frenzy as Bitcoin falls below $30,000, a 55% drop from its all-time high

IANS