In recent times, stablecoins have proven to be a vital component of the crypto industry. Hence, many people are now turning to these coins as the bridge between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies. The importance of stablecoins is laid bare in the growth of their market capitalization, which has grown from $20B in October 2020 to over $156,2B in 2021. Now it keeps its staggering escalation at a dramatic rate.
Among the list of various stablecoins in the market, we have the Terra blockchain-based UST and its other counterpart the Terra LUNA. The Terra blockchain uses Cosmos SDK for creating stablecoins and its stablecoin isn’t fiat-backed or over-collateralized. Instead, it is algorithmic and powered by the Terra LUNA token. The LUNA cr
Terra exploits the power of stablecoins to drive global price-stable systems of payment. Going by the details in its whitepaper, the Terra crypto merges the censorship-resistance capability of cryptocurrencies with the wide adoption and price stability of fiat currencies. Combined together, these features offer affordable and swift payments.
The founders of Terra, Do Kwon and Daniel Shin, began working on the protocol in 2018 and the official mainnet was launched the following year. As recently as September 2021, the Terra ecosystem launched stablecoins that are pegged to the following fiat currencies including Mongolian tugrik, South Korean Won, U.S. Dollar, with more options proposed.
The native coin of the Terra network is the LUNA crypto and it is used to maintain the stable rate of the Terra blockchain’s stablecoins. Additionally, the holders of the Terra LUNA coin can vote on matters of governance on the protocol, which also makes the LUNA crypto a governance token.
The Terra LUNA coin operates as an algorithm-based stablecoin that maintains its fiat-peg by automatic adjustments of the stablecoin supply and demand curve using an algorithm. The stablecoin supply and demand are adjusted through incentives provided to holders of Terra LUNA crypto to carry out LUNA/stablecoin swapping at profitable exchange rates. So, the stablecoin supply is contracted or expanded based on demand.
Luna token holders are allowed to stake their tokens in the Terra network. Just like most crypto protocols, staking rewards on Terra Luna are always calculated in proportion to the amount of Luna crypto coin staked. Similarly, the number of rewards is directly linked to the transaction volume size.
Luna Anchor protocol is described as a low-volatility savings mechanism that uses Terra Stablecoins deposits. The mechanism functions as a means to provide Terra stablecoin holders with incentives.
On the other hand, the Mirror protocol is powered by smart contracts on the Terra network to allow the creation of stimulated assets called “mAssets”, Mirrored Assets. The mAssets are replications of real-world assets to allow traders to gain price exposure without possessing real-world assets and the hassles that come with them.
Just like similar cryptocurrencies like NEO and Ethereum, the Terra network requires gas fees to process transactions. In other words, without Terra gas, smart contracts can’t be executed. Utilizing the mechanism does not only eliminate spam from the blockchain but also provides miners with extra incentives to execute these operations.
The Terra ecosystem is very much centralized around its dominant stablecoin, which is the UST. Furthermore, most of the TVL is found mostly on some key protocols like the Anchor protocol.
Nevertheless, the Terra ecosystem is projected to witness explosive growth after the Columbus-5 main-net upgrade. In the meantime, let’s focus on the ongoings inside the Terra ecosystem.
The top project of the Terra ecosystem is the stablecoins, with its UST being the dominant stablecoin in Terra. The plan is to raise the demand for UST by excluding other stablecoin pairs like USDC, USDT, DAI on the Terra crypto ecosystem.
Being pegged by a smart mechanism with LUNA will not just bring stability to the price of UST but also increase the value of Terra native token “LUNA”.
There are three notable Automated Market Maker sectors in the Terra LUNA ecosystem, which are Astroport, Loop Finance, and TerraSwap. Currently, Terraswap is the most dominant with most TVL due to its advantage of being an early mover. However, the appearance of other AMM has led to some competition in the AMM sector on the Terra ecosystem.
As of now, there are three lending projects available to users on Terra. It includes Mars Protocol, Edge Protocol, and Anchor Protocol. Despite the availability of three lending protocols, the only live one currently is the Anchor protocol, accounting for about 40.48% of the total TVL in the Terra Luna crypto ecosystem.
Moreover, the Terra blockchain features functions like Yield farming, Synthetic, IDO, NFT, payment, and charity protocols.
The primary difference between UST and LUNA is that UST is a stablecoin while LUNA is a utility token of the Terra ecosystem. Furthermore, the functions that each token plays in the Terra network are different as well, and this will be discussed below.
Terra Luna is known to play four vital roles on the platform, which are:
Thanks to its burn tokenomics, LUNA’s maximum supply cannot exceed the limit of 1 billion LUNA coins. Once the network records an extension of this limit, the tokens are burnt to return their supply to the equilibrium level of one billion tokens.
Concerning the Terra USD, it is not only secured by the smart-contract algorithms but also by Luna Coins. To mint Terra UST, users are required to burn the dollar-equivalent amount of LUNA.
Terra’s Seigniorage is a small amount of Luna tokens used to mint stablecoins, which are sent to the community treasury, thus, providing another profitable means for the Terra network. A centralized process similar to Seigniorage is when Central Banks profit off printing money.
Users can acquire Terra (LUNA) by following these simple steps on Swapzone:
LUNA is available on many crypto exchanges. However, it is very important to use reliable platforms. As an example, you can use Swapzone to also compare rates or try our one of our direct partners:
An exchange rate is the rate at which one cryptocurrency can be exchanged for another through a certain crypto exchange provider. Cryptocurrency exchange rates on Swapzone reflect current prices of crypto assets and are updated every 30 seconds for you to keep track of any market changes and fluctuations to profit when buying the dip or going with the best exchange rate and the lowest exchange fees. All cryptocurrency exchange providers have their own rates, which depends on supply and demand, mining rewards, costs and so on. See what else might affect the rate in our article on prices.
There are two types of exchange rates aggregated by Swapzone – fixed rates and floating rates. To receive the exact amount of crypto that is displayed at the beginning of the exchange and shield yourself against the market's volatility, opt for fixed-rate offers. If you're ready to take a risk and receive less or more than the sum displayed, go with floating-rate offers but bear in mind that floating rates may drastically change any second. You can refresh your memory on how to get the best exchange rate here.
Crypto transaction fees may vary depending on the network (Ethereum transaction fees tend to spike during the congestion on the network), your chosen cryptocurrency, an instant exchange provider as well as its transaction processing speed and internal policy. These fees may be relatively low but it’s crucial to know they may be imposed in the first place.
If you want to exchange cryptocurrency with the lowest fees, beware of the offers with a grey-colored “Transaction fees are not included” label displayed under the exchange rate. To avoid having to pay an unexpected amount of fees during the exchange, opt for those that do not have that label. Read our articles to learn more about how to exchange cryptocurrency with the lowest fees and find out which assets have the lowest transaction fees.
Transactions usually take from 5 to 30 minutes to be processed, especially if you choose currencies with speedy networks. However, there are several factors that may affect and slow down the exchange process, i.e. transaction volume, blockchain capacity, network updates, cryptocurrency itself and the capacity or chosen exchange platforms.
The processing may take longer due to the large transaction volume, congestion of the network, blockchain overload and market overload, technical issues or system failures, lack of liquidity or network maintenance.
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To exchange, buy, sell or trade cryptocurrency and store your crypto keys safely and securely, you need a crypto wallet. Choosing the best cryptocurrency wallet is a question of preference and need. To learn more, read our guide on how to choose the best cryptocurrency wallet for your needs.
There are several types of wallets for different crypto assets and tasks. Software wallets, or hot storage wallets, are connected to the Internet and come in many forms: Web, Desktop, Mobile or Browser Extensions. If you want to build a large crypto portfolio, you might want to look at multi currency wallets like Exodus, MetaMask, TrustWallet, Atomic or Guarda. If a coin or a token of your choice isn’t available there, you can always opt for a single-currency wallet that is usually designed by the project that launched the asset.
If you take safety and security matters seriously, go for hardware wallets, or cold storage wallets, like Ledger or Trezor, or even paper wallets. We strongly recommend you to do your research before creating a wallet: read the reviews to see what the community thinks, learn about the fees a particular wallet imposes for performing transactions, check out supported currencies and networks and see its security policy.
There are loads of different crypto exchange services, with new platforms emerging every month. Exchange providers differ by supported currencies, liquidity providers, fees, customer support, user interface, level of privacy and anonymity and customer support, which makes it hard for beginners to understand which one to choose. To learn more about what these exchanges offer and how you can assess them, read our guide on how to choose the best exchange platform.
To navigate them through the field full of services, we conduct research and thorough analysis of the market & list both prominent and promising exchange providers, keeping in touch with their teams 24/7. We give you all the necessary data on the offers they provide as well as their brief history, KYC/AML policies, reliability and advantages, while also indicating their downsides so that you don’t have to do that yourself.
Swapzone is an instant non-custodial cryptocurrency exchange aggregator that helps users make an informed choice when exchanging crypto assets. To make this possible, we gather the information on the exchange providers, select the parameters for comparison, aggregate and sort available deals & give an option to make a swap through providers' APIs in the same interface with a common user flow for every exchange. Still have doubts? Here's 9 reasons why you should use Swapzone to exchange crypto.
Learn how to exchange cryptocurrency with the lowest fees or zero fees as well as how to find the best crypto exchange rates and choose the safest cryptocurrency exchange provider.