Terra’s LUNA, the eighth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, reached a new all-time high of US$106.14 on Tuesday early afternoon Asia time, following a US$135 million purchase of Bitcoin.
See related story: Is Terra — whose LUNA coin is now at another all-time high — really where the smart money is?
Fast facts
- Terra is a blockchain payment network that offers a suite of decentralized, algorithmic stablecoins, governed by the LUNA token. In essence, LUNA’s price increases as more Terra stablecoins are minted.
- At the beginning of March, LUNA was trading under US$90 but broke out to a new all-time high of US$106.14 on Tuesday early afternoon Asia time, according to data by CoinMarketCap.
- The price surge came after Terraform Labs founder and CEO Do Kwon, said the company purchased Bitcoin worth US$135 million to back the ecosystem’s stablecoins, Bloomberg reported.
- The acquisition is part of Terra’s ambitions to purchase a total of US$10 billion worth of Bitcoin, and transition from an algorithmic stablecoin to a Bitcoin-backed stablecoin. According to Kwon’s tweet, this will usher in a new era of peer-to-peer electronic cash: “$UST with $10B+ in $BTC reserves will open a new monetary era of the Bitcoin standard…”
- Popular entrepreneur and crypto investor Anthony Pompliano praised Terra’s Bitcoin bet via Twitter: “Every stablecoin issuer should pay attention to what Terra is doing. #Bitcoin is good for business.”
See related story: Terra founder bets millions on LUNA’s annual growth