Terra Price (LUNA)

What Is Terra 2.0 (LUNA)?

Terra (LUNA) is a public blockchain protocol that emerged from Terra Classic. Terra Classic is home to the algorithmic stablecoin TerraClassicUSD (UST). It's now-renamed LUNC token collateralized UST, which crashed in a bank run in May 2022. That devalued LUNA to virtually zero and caused a launch of a new chain — resulting in Terra Classic and Terra. Read a full breakdown of the Terra crash here.

The development of Terra Classic launched in January 2018 and the blockchain launched in April 2019. It attempted to combine the price stability and wide adoption of fiat currencies with the censorship-resistance of Bitcoin (BTC) and offer fast and affordable settlements through its UST stablecoin. Terra Classic offered stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar, South Korean won, Mongolian tugrik, and the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights basket of currencies.

The new Terra blockchain continues the legacy of Terra Classic without the UST stablecoin. It will keep building with the help of the LUNA community dubbed “LUNAtics” and evolve the world-class UX and UI that brought Terra Classic up to second place in total value locked (TVL) at its peak. Many DApps have agreed to migrate to Terra to continue their functionality.

Who Are the Founders of Terra?

Terra was founded in January 2018 by Daniel Shin and Do Kwon. The two conceived of the project as a way to drive the rapid adoption of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency through a focus on price stability and usability. Kwon took on the position of CEO of Terraform Labs, the company behind Terra.

Prior to developing Terra, Shin co-founded and headed Ticket Monster, otherwise known as TMON — a major South Korean e-commerce platform. He later co-founded Fast Track Asia, a startup incubator working with entrepreneurs to build fully functional companies.

Kwon previously founded and served as CEO of Anyfi, a startup providing decentralized wireless mesh networking solutions. He has also worked as a software engineer for Microsoft and Apple.

After the collapse of Terra Classic, Do Kwon issued a revival plan that eventually led to the hard fork of Terra Classic and Terra. He received criticism for his plans from Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Vitalik Buterin, as well as from disgruntled UST investors. His proposal was voted into effect by the community and Terra Classic hard forked into its new Terra blockchain on May 27, 2022.

What Makes Terra 2.0 Unique?

Terra will continue without its algorithmic stablecoin UST and aims to preserve the Terra ecosystem with hundreds of developers working on different decentralized applications. The LUNA token will be airdropped across Luna Classic stakers, holders, residual UST holders and essential Terra Classic app developers. Terra removed the wallet of Terra Foundation Labs for the airdrop event, making Terra a fully community-owned chain.

The airdrop will be carried out according to two snapshots taken, one before the Terra Classic crash (May 7) and one after it (May 27). The eligibility for the airdrop is as follows:

Holding the following assets on the May 7 snapshot:

• Luna Classic (LUNC) (including staking derivatives)
• Less than 500k aUST (UST deposited in Anchor)

Holding the following assets on the May 27 snapshot:

• Luna Classic (LUNC) (including staking derivatives)
• UST

At Genesis, 30% of the LUNA airdrop will be immediately available to pre-attack users with wallets that had less than 10k LUNA (including staking derivatives) or deposited UST in Anchor, and post-attack users with any quantity of LUNA (including staking derivatives), UST, or both.

Furthermore, vested LUNA distributed during the airdrop will be automatically staked to Terra validators. Users can change their delegator and will earn staking rewards on their vested LUNA but are subject to a six-month cliff. You can read the full details of the Terra (LUNA) airdrop in this explainer article by Terra.

Related Pages:

• Learn about USD Coin, one of the most trusted stablecoins on the market.
• Learn about Avalanche, another layer-one blockchain.
• Read the in-depth guide to the Terra ecosystem on Alexandria, CoinMarketCap's online educational resource.
• Want to keep track of LUNA prices live? Download the CoinMarketCap mobile app!
• Want to convert LUNA price today to your desired fiat currency? Check out CoinMarketCap exchange rate calculator.
• Stay up to date on the ways stablecoins are changing the payments industry with the CoinMarketCap education portal — Alexandria.

How Many Terra (LUNA) Coins Are There in Circulation?

Terra (LUNA) has a supply of 1 billion tokens. It will be distributed as follows:

• Developer mining program: 8%
  • Essential app developers earn a share of the mining program proceeds pro-rata to the amount of TVL every quarter for 4 years.
• Developer alignment program: 1.5%
  • Protocol teams that were live in Terra Classic divide this allocation weighted by the last 30 day TVL from Pre-attack snapshot - 1 year cliff, 3 year vesting thereafter. Accommodations will be made for apps where TVL is not applicable.
• Emergency allocation to app developers: 0.5%
  • Immediately after network launch to provide for runway while they build out product. Commit to returning funds if product has not been launched in 1 year.
• Community pool: 20%
  • Controlled by staked governance
• Pre-attack LUNA holders: 35%
  • All bonded / unbonding Luna, minus TFL at “Pre-attack” snapshot; staking derivatives included
  • For wallets with < 10k Luna: 30% unlocked at genesis; 70% vested over 2 years with 6mnth cliff
  • For wallets with < 1M Luna: 1 year cliff, 2 year vesting thereafter
  • For wallets with > 1M Luna: 1 year cliff, 4 year vesting thereafter
• Pre-attack aUST holders: 10%
  • 500K whale cap - covers up to 99.7% of all holders but only 26.72% of aUST
  • 30% unlocked at genesis; 70% vested over 2 years thereafter with 6 month cliff
• Post-attack LUNA holders: 10%
  • Staking derivatives included
  • 30% unlocked at genesis; 70% vested over 2 years thereafter with 6 month cliff
• Post-attack UST holders: 15%
  • 30% unlocked at genesis; 70% vested over 2 years thereafter with 6 month cliff

Definitions:

• “Pre-attack” snapshot to be taken at at Terra Classic block 7544910 (2022.05.07 22:59:37+08:00)
• “Post-attack” snapshot to be taken at Terra Classic block 7790000 (2022.05.27 00:38:08+08:00)

All tokens locked or vesting are staked at genesis, and must be unbonded to become liquid.

Furthermore, Terra committed to burning the remaining 1B UST from the community pool to reduce the outstanding debt from the Terra ecosystem. The LUNA airdrop will happen on May 28, 2022, at 06:00 GMT.

How Is the Terra Network Secured?

The Terra blockchain is secured using a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm based on Tendermint, in which LUNA token holders stake their tokens as collateral to validate transactions, receiving rewards in proportion to the amount of LUNA staked. Terra will incentivize network security by providing staking rewards of 7% annual inflation. This is to align the interest of validators with the long-term success of the Terra ecosystem.

Where Can You Buy Terra 2.0 (LUNA)?

Several centralized exchanges committed to trading the new LUNA token, such as Huobi, Bitrue, Bitfinex, FTX, KuCoin, Gate.io, Bybit and LBank. Others are expected to follow soon.

Are you interested in buying LUNA or other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin? CoinMarketCap has an educational section — Alexandria — to teach you all about crypto and how to buy your first coins.