Terra’s Forked LUNA Token Falls 70% a Day After Debut

Terra has revamped its blockchain ecosystem with its latest LUNA token having experienced a battering amid its market debut

article-image

Do Kwon, CEO of TerraForm Labs | Blockworks Exclusive Art by Axel Rangel

share

key takeaways

  • The token was last seen changing hands for around $5.69, following a 24-hour peak of $19.54
  • Trading volume has also dropped by more than half as activity from an extensive sell-off begins to cool

The latest iteration of the Terra blockchain (Terra 2.0) is off to a rocky start with its native token LUNA having fallen considerably following the chain’s debut on Saturday.

LUNA, the retooled token of the same name, fell more than 70% Sunday following a swift sell-off after listing on crypto exchanges Bybit, KuCoin, Gate.io and Huobi.

The token was last seen changing hands for around $5.69, following a 24-hour peak of $19.54. The new LUNA had initially listed on Bybit for around $3.63, data from provider CoinMarketCap shows.

Trading volume for LUNA over a 36-hour period has also fallen alongside its price, posting a 64% drop in activity from a peak of around $393.4 million to around $145.3 million.

Terra’s collapse sent shockwaves through the crypto market earlier this month after the blockchain’s then-native algorithmic stablecoin, UST, began to de-peg from the US dollar. The stablecoin was last seen changing hands for $0.03.

After multiple failed attempts to bring UST back to parity, the original LUNA token — linked to UST by design — also fell 99% from a May 9 peak of $66.51 to less than a cent three days later.

Following the fallout, Terraform Labs, the main developer of the Terra/LUNA ecosystem, proposed to split the chain in an attempt to assuage angry investors and restore faith in its brand.

A week-long vote, last week, resulted in 65% of LUNA holders opting to fork the battered chain. A renamed Terra Classic alongside its native asset Luna Classic (LUNC) have been kept as the original chain and token, while the newest iteration takes the form of the old Terra and LUNA branding.

The new chain promises to be a “fully community-owned” network, with several addresses tied to the project having been removed from its airdrop whitelist.

Still, not all are impressed by the new facelift, with some angry at the lack of clarity and compensation provided to those who lost hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars worth of tokens.

An investigation into the Luna collapse is underway in South Korea where employees of Terraform Labs have been summoned for questioning and ordered to submit materials, local news outlet JTBC reported Saturday.

Blockworks attempted to contact Terraform Labs but did not receive a reply by press time.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Featured.png

Research

Helium stands at a pivotal moment in its evolution as a decentralized wireless network, balancing rapid growth, economic restructuring, and global expansion. With accelerated growth in domestic DAUs and Hotspots supporting its network, Helium is leveraging strategic partnerships and innovative proposals to scale internationally. The recent implementation of HIP 138, “Return to HNT,” has unified its token economy under HNT, simplifying participation and strengthening liquidity, while HIP 139’s phase-out of CBRS refocuses efforts on scalable Wi-Fi offload. Meanwhile, governance shifts under HIP 141 raise questions about centralization as Nova Labs consolidates control over the roadmap.

article-image

In 2011, WikiLeaks faced a financial blockade imposed by the US government. It was Bitcoin’s first major test.

article-image

Kado’s founder Emery Andrew spoke to Blockworks about the acquisition and what’s next for the team

article-image

LayerZero’s Bryan Pellegrino chatted with Blockworks about the firm’s next steps and its 10-year runway

article-image

Colosseum co-founder Matty Taylor is seeing “high-performance [Solana] founders showing a lot of interest in private trading technology”

article-image

Executives weigh the growth potential they see in the public stock and private credit/equities arenas

article-image

Players can stake ME, trade tokens and link wallets to climb the leaderboard