Terra Classic’s USTC stablecoin rate is up by 175% year-to-date

What’s new? From November 26 to November 27, the rate of the algorithmic stablecoin USTC from the Terra Classic blockchain project jumped by 385%, hitting a 16-month high of $0,0722. Although it has corrected to $0,055 at the time of writing, it has gained 175% since the beginning of the year. The recent surge could follow an initiative by the Binance crypto exchange: on November 27, trading of open-ended USTC contracts with leverage up to 50x became available on the futures platform. In addition, on November 30, the exchange will launch spot trading of USTC paired with the FDUSD stablecoin.

CoinGecko’s data

What else is known? The Terra blockchain ecosystem collapsed in May 2022 as the rates of the UST stablecoin and the LUNA native token collapsed to almost zero. The community later conducted a hard fork, which resulted in the network splitting into two unrelated networks. The original one was named Terra Classic, its assets changed tickers to USTC and LUNC. The new one started operating under the name Terra, with coins traded under the tickers UST and LUNA.

The Terra Classic community is still actively trying to rebuild the project, claiming it has “limitless growth potential.” In September, members approved an initiative aimed at restoring the USTC peg to the US dollar. That said, back in July, Terra Classic developer Tobias Andersen recommended that the community create an entirely new blockchain and warned that the LUNA market is susceptible to manipulation.

Reactivation initiatives are also coming from members of the new Terra network; in October, they suggested involving Terraform Labs (TFL), the company that created the original blockchain.

The rise in USTC’s rate may have been helped by news related to TFL founder Do Kwon. After the collapse of Terra, he was on the run while authorities and investors from several countries filed lawsuits against him on fraud charges. Only in March this year, the businessman was detained in Montenegro with forged documents, for which he received four months in prison.

On November 24, the Montenegrin court approved Kwon’s extradition to Korea or the United States, and the authorities of both countries have filed the relevant requests. The final decision on which country the businessman will be extradited to will be made later by the Justice Ministry.