04-19-2022 icon

Terra’s LUNA gains 17% as UST displaces BUSD to become third-largest stablecoin

By Lucy Adegbe
Terra

Terra’s LUNA has emerged one of the biggest gainers in the cryptocurrency market after its price surged 17% in the past 24 hours. LUNA traded as high as $92.07 in the Asian hours of Tuesday.

LUNA, the governance token of money market protocol Terra, pushed past the $80-$82.

At the time of writing, LUNA is trading at $90.04, an indication that profit taking is ongoing. 

24-hour UST/USD trading chart (Source: tradingview.com)

In the beginning of April, LUNA had fallen by 37% from a lifetime high of $120.

In a similar development, UST – a stablecoin tied to Terra’s algorithm – has displaced Binance USD (BUSD) in the early hours of Monday to become the third-largest stablecoin based on market circulation.

This comes as Terra became the top buyer of Convex’s token (CVX) in the past month. According to studies by Delphi Digital, Terra purchased $17 million worth of CVX tokens. 

Major crypto funds led by Jump Crypto, in February,  invested $1 billion in the Luna foundation Guard (LFG). LFG is a Singapore-based non-profit that aims to purchase several assets as reserves to maintain the stability of UST.