LUNA or Terra LUNA, now known as Terra Classic (LUNC) is a cryptocurrency project from a tech firm in Singapore called Terraform Labs. LUNA was the project’s solution created to keep Terra’s stablecoin UST steady.
Terra’s UST was a 1:1 peg to USD. In other words, LUNA was designed to mint UST and stabilize the stablecoin if it became less than $1. Terra’s UST could also be traded for LUNA to lower UST’s price if the stablecoin’s price went over $.
History of Terra Classic (LUNC)
Before we discuss how the cryptocurrency is expected to perform in the coming months and years, it is paramount that we discuss the evolution of Terra Classic (LUNC) to what we know today.
The Terra blockchain was launched in 2018, and the following year, LUNA was first sold to investors. The token went for 18 cents during a seed round and 80 cents in a private sale. Soon after, Terra published its first white paper, and in February 2020, LUNA was listed for the very first time in a South Korean crypto exchange.
In September 2020, Terra announced that its algorithmic stablecoin UST would be launched and pegged at 1:1. In December 2021, LUNA started recording highs of $90 and above. By April 2022, LUNA was doing better than other cryptos, and UST had become the third-largest stablecoin.
In the same month, some LUNA tokens were burned to match the rising demand for UST, causing LUNA’s supply to drop to 346 million tokens. At the beginning of May 2022, UST dropped to a low of $0.985 and continued to struggle to get back to $1.
The Fall of Terra
Once a billion-dollar digital asset ecosystem, Terra found itself in a quandary when it crumbled in less than a week. UST was depegged and investors who were used to almost 20% returns on UST started selling it in a frenzy, and the more this happened the more LUNA saw hyperinflation. You can also learn more in our article explaining the fall of Terra, Celsius and FTX.
By mid-May 2022, Terra’s tokens LUNA and its counterpart, the stablecoin terraUSD (UST), dropped to 35 cents and less than 10 cents respectively. No token in history has ever dropped 96% in less than a day like LUNA did last year.
On the 20th of May, it was discovered that investors leaving Terra had lost approximately $28 billion. A few days later, South Korean authorities started to investigate the events revealing that 280,000 citizens had been affected.
For example, crypto hedge funds like Three Arrows Capital (3AC), are indeed going bankrupt because the falling prices resulted in forced liquidations of collateralized loans. Also, crypto lending platforms like Babel ended up suspending withdrawals and clients couldn’t access funds.
The founder Do Kwon, with the approval of Terra validators, decided to revive the crypto project with the help of some community developers by splitting the original blockchain into Terra Classic with the native token LUNC and Terra 2.0 with LUNA tokens.
Do Kwon revived the project with the hope that all the previous protocols and applications would migrate to the new blockchain. Any new decentralized apps (dApps) will be on the new LUNA 2.0 chain except algorithmic stablecoins.
Terra’s current stablecoins (UST, EUT, and KRT) have now been rebranded to Terra Classic stablecoins USTC, EUTC, and KRTC.
LUNC Overview
Terra blockchain is now rebranded as Terra Classic and its former token LUNA is now LUNA Classic or LUNC. Given the collapse of Luna, many investors have reservations about investing in LUNC.
| Current Price | $0.00011 |
| Rank | 70 |
| Circulating Supply | 5,895,278,801,147 |
| Market cap | $636,837,455 |
| Trading Volume | $31,849,773 |
| All-time high | $119.18 |
Historical Performance
Before its sudden fall, LUNA was one of the top-performing cryptocurrencies. By the end of 2021, Terra had become one of the top DeFi protocols. It had over $20 billion locked covering all its applications and a market capitalization of over $41 billion.
Since its inception in 2019, LUNA’s price would vacillate between $0.2 and $1.3 till April 202, but by the end of 2021, the price had almost reached $100. At the beginning of 2022, LUNA continued to grow Then, in early 2022, LUNA would fluctuate between $50 and $100, and by April, it had reached an all-time high of $119.
Come May, the LUNA’s prices began to drastically fall and by mid-May, LUNA was only worth a few cents, setting the stage for its collapse. This adversely affected the cryptocurrency market.
Since it was launched in 2022, LUNC has not had any incidents like hacks or scams, but this has not made it easier for the token.
It has still remained volatile and has struggled to regain the same momentum it had before the fall.
This February, the Terra Classic chain received an update (version 1.0.5) designed to upgrade the blockchain’s functionality and make it more secure This update also ensured that Binance continued to burn LUNC tokens, bringing the total number of burned tokens to approximately 52.5 billion.
Factors Affecting Terra Classic (LUNC) Performance
The future of LUNC is very unsure and can be difficult to predict. LUNA had risen to become one of the most popular and profitable tokens. Terra had amazing DeFi projects and had become the second most popular DeFi platform.
As the Terra Classic community continues to work on the blockchain, the project indicates more work is being done to grow the platform’s utility. This also has the chance to boost LUNC’s price and push it toward recovery.
Though you really can’t determine how well LUNC will do from its past, Terra’s successes can’t be ignored. That being said, certain factors can be used to predict LUNC’s future price performance.
LUNAs collapse
As mentioned above in detail, LUNA’s recent collapse has affected how current and potential investors view the token. The event is still fresh, and many people are still suffering from the consequences of its fall. Many investors and supporters are still wary of investing in the cryptocurrency, and though it is a new token, LUNCA may not be accepted as quickly. This will potentially slow down its price performance.
Recent Terra events
Do Kwon was arrested in March this year in Montenegro and charged with fraud by American prosecutors. On top of that, there was a reported breach in the Terraport Liquidity wallet resulting in more investors and supporters losing faith in Terra. Depending on how this goes, LUNC will continue to be insatiable and its future prices will most probably shift in the negative.
Bitcoin performance
In the crypto market space, coins can affect each other and move in similar ways. Bitcoin is currently the largest cryptocurrency with the highest market cap. Like similar altcoins, LUNC’s success has majorly depended on the success of Bitcoin. When the price of Bitcoin goes up, the price of LUNC may increase as well.
Potential loss of community
Miraculously, Terra Classic still managed to retain a majority of its community traders and investors after the collapse. Terra’s community has been working to reduce the token supplied by burning LUNC tokens.
Nevertheless, many investors are not pleased with Kwon’s revival measures, particularly the creation of a new chain, and Terra stands the chance to lose a large portion of its community.
Supply
For a token that has been through a rough time, LUNC’s current supply is quite high. Even after burning around 52.5 billion tokens. If the supply continues to remain high, LUNC will struggle to keep up with an upward trend. Still, Terra’s 1.2% burn tax policy could make a difference and help reverse over minting.
Support from Exchanges
Presently, different cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance and KuCoin are still listing LUNC on their platforms. Such support could encourage other exchanges to do the same, improve LUNC’s trading volumes and hopefully help LUNC revive again.
LUNC Price Prediction
Despite its recent negative events, LUNC is reporting bullish signals, which shows that things may be shifting in its favor. Still, it could take a while before LUNC reclaims its lost glory. Technical indicators show that current sentiment on LUNC is neutral, but fearful, which is to be expected considering the last year.
Before its fall, UST and LUNA were in the top 10 list and were doing amazingly well. In fact, in April of the same year, LUNA had outperformed several cryptos and was at a high of $90, and UST was one of the top 3 stablecoins. For this reason, there are still some crypto investors that still hope the LUNC will become as great as LUNA was.
Yearly Predictions
According to Bitnation, LUNC’s future predictions look as follows.
| Year | Minimum Price | Average Price | Maximum Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | $0.000133 | $0.000166 | $0.0002 |
| 2024 | $0.000244 | $0.000277 | $0.000311 |
| 2025 | $0.000355 | $0.000388 | $0.000422 |
| 2026 | $0.000466 | $0.000499 | $0.000533 |
| 2027 | $0.000577 | $0.00061 | $0.000644 |
| 2028 | $0.000688 | $0.000721 | $0.000755 |
| 2029 | $0.000799 | $0.000832 | $0.000866 |
| 2030 | $0.00091 | $0.000943 | $0.000977 |
LUNC price predictions 2023
Over the last month, LUNC has been on a downward trend and the most investors can expect is a slight increase in its price. It has been running below the 50-day simple moving average for some time, giving a bearish outlook.
As the year progresses, we expect LUNC to continue fluctuating but may maintain an average of $0.000166. The token is predicted to reach a maximum of $0.0002 or drop to $0.000133.
LUNC price predictions 2025
If LUNC somehow manages to overcome its current hurdles, burn enough coins to create demand, and gain the trust of crypto investors, it will manage to reach $0.000388 in 2025. If it increases, it is expected to reach a maximum price of $0.000422. If LUNC drops, forecasts show it could reach a minimum of $0.000355.
LUNC price predictions 2030
By 2030, experts still do not believe the Terra Classic coin will have reached $1. At most, it will maybe peak at $0.000977 or drop to $0.00091. However, if Terra can adapt to the emerging trends, continue to burn its tokens (to reduce supply), and maintain transparency, LUNC will once again gain investor and community trust and maybe reach $1 again.
Anything is possible in the digital assets space LUNC should not be ruled out just yet. The blockchain may someday make a comeback and rebuild itself from its ness. Still, LUNC remains vulnerable and will continue to be volatile for a while.
Where to buy LUNC
When Luna and UST collapsed, many cryptocurrency exchanges delisted them from their platforms. After Terra’s relaunch, these exchanges decided to feature LUNC. You can buy Terra Classic (LUNC) on Binance, Kraken, eToro, KuCoin, CoinTiger, and Crypto.com.
Since Terra supports staking (similar to having a savings account) and runs on the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, investors who buy LUNC can choose to stake it on an exchange as long as they have it in their wallet.
Before purchasing any LUNC tokens, investors should perform due diligence and ensure they understand what they should expect from its performance. If you are thinking of investing in LUNC, current technical analyses say that you should wait first.
Finally
Investing in the crypto market can be a huge risk when we consider its volatility. When both UST and LUNA failed and plummeted, investors lost trust in Terra. Some experts suggest that investors can plough money into the crypto coin if they regard Terra’s past performance. Nevertheless, investing in LUNC or any other digital currency should be done after much consideration and advice.
