- Crypto exchange Binance (BNB-USD) is delisting Terra’s (LUNA-USD) LUNA crypto
- LUNA has lost more than 99.9% of its value over the course of the week
- Developers halted the chain in an effort to salvage what is left of the network
The Terra network’s rapid decline this week is one of the biggest campfire horror stories for crypto believers. A top 10 coin dropping to a worthless value in the matter of days is a cruel reminder of just how fast a crypto player can slip into obscurity. News of a major delisting is now adding salt to the wound, cutting off buyers from the project while it remains on life support.
Trouble began for Terra over the past weekend, when the network’s TerraUSD (UST-USD) stablecoin fell from its $1 peg. Since then, developers have been doing damage control, using capital from its Bitcoin (BTC-USD) reserve, as well as $750 million UST, to lend out to exchanges and hopefully restabilize prices.
Unfortunately, this didn’t work. In fact, UST and LUNA prices only further spun out of control. By Tuesday, UST prices dropped to 30 cents; LUNA prices were down more than $50 since Saturday. And while the network continued its downward spiral, investors became increasingly concerned by a lack of clarity or a plan from developers.
Ultimately, founder Do Kwon filled in Terra users on a plan yesterday. By this point, though, LUNA crypto prices had already gone lower than anybody could have predicted. The coin had gone from nearly $80 to 1 cent in five days.
Binance Delists the LUNA Crypto After Blockchain Halt
These events have ultimately led the Terra team to halt all activity on the network’s blockchain. No data can be added to the chain, meaning transactions and any sort of dapp activity is frozen in time. The developers are explaining that this is a means to keep any users from buying up massive wallets of the LUNA crypto and taking control of the network.
While the move is well intentioned and makes sense, it is not doing the floundering currency any favors. In the last 24 hours, LUNA has dropped over 99.9%, bringing prices to a very small fraction of a cent.
And yesterday, Binance did the network no favors. The world’s largest exchange announced yesterday that it would delist LUNA and UST if LUNA’s price fell below $0.005. This did indeed happen, leading to Binance yanking the cryptos off its platform this morning.
If there’s any bit of good news to come out of this, it’s that Binance isn’t entirely abandoning the Terra network. Tweets from Binance this morning show that it will be resuming LUNA and UST spot trading at some point. While initially slated to relist at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, the company is delaying the resumption, and plans to announce a new time shortly.
On the date of publication, Brenden Rearick did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
