🌖 Could Stablecoin Ethena (USDe) Collapse Like Terra LUNA? CryptoQuant Investigates

Emerging stablecoin Ethena (USDe) poses unique risks for holders compared to other dollar-denominated tokens, argued CryptoQuant in a new report on the matter.

The Unique Risks Of Ethena (USDe)

Boasting a market cap of over $2.3 billion today, Ethena emerged in late February and quickly became the fastest-growing stablecoin in history. One of its most attractive features is that it generates yield for its holders, unlike leading stablecoins whose issuers keep all profits for themselves.

However, the same mechanism that pays holders with returns also gives the protocol’s business model a hint of risk.

“Risks arise for Ethena when cryptocurrency markets experience sharp price corrections and the funding rate becomes negative as traders liquidate their long positions and others want to open short positions,” wrote CryptoQuant to Twitter on Tuesday.

Ethena keeps its peg to the dollar by using a delta-hedging strategy. The protocol backs USDe using Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), and counterbalances fluctuations in value around those investments by holding perpetual futures shorting both assets.

By contrast, traditional stablecoin issuers typically back their tokens with reserves consisting of cash and U.S. treasuries – the latter of which generates most of the firm’s profit. Compared to this model, Ethena’s reserves are far more censorship-resistant, given that many components of the system are based on-chain.

🌖 Luna Classic’s Rally and Dip: Bitbot Crypto Presale Draws Focus

The crypto market has seen some wild shifts lately. Namely from the likes of Lunar Classic, with a surprising rally and subsequent dip, Luna Classic is currently down 100% from its ATH.

Meanwhile, the Bitbot crypto presale, raising an impressive $2.6m in only 13 weeks, has emerged as a hidden gem, presenting itself as a beacon of quality for investors, attracting attention away from questionable projects and associated figures like Do Kwon, the founder of Luna.

Read on to learn why investors are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to participate before BITBOT hits the exchanges.

🌖 Luna Classic’s rally and dip: Do Kwon delivers final remarks in his trial

The price of Terra Luna Classic (LUNC) fell as the legal representatives of Terraform Labs and its founder, Do Kwon, prepared their closing arguments in a civil court case. The SEC has charged the company and Kwon with deceiving investors regarding the stability of the TerraUSD stablecoin, leading to allegations of fraud.

Despite LUNC’s remarkable initial 45% gain within a month, reaching $0.000199 with a significant increase in trading volume, it faced a downturn, dropping 31% in the past month, prompting a notable sell-off.

Overall, despite Luna Classic’s loyal following, its legal troubles have left a mark on investor confidence. Now, investors are eyeing fresh opportunities like Bitbot, seeking stronger returns ahead of the Bitcoin halving.

🌖 Terra Luna Classic Block Size Proposal Officially Passed, LUNC Price Soars 10% USTC 20%

Terra Luna Classic community has unanimously passed a crucial block size proposal to mitigate some risks of peer-to-peer storm attacks on the Terra Classic chain. Notable developers have pointed out possible risks to Cosmos, Solana, and Polkadot ecosystems and suggested initial measures to reduce the impact of such attacks.

Terra Luna Classic Approves MaxBlockSize Proposal
Proposal 12094 “Proposal to decrease MaxBlockSize” has surpassed the pass threshold, officially approved by the Terra Luna Classic community. The developer team Genuine Labs submitted a proposal to decrease MaxBlockSize from 5mb to 2mb as an initial security measure to counter peer-to-peer spam.

The proposal has received 99.87% “Yes” votes, indicating the importance of increasing the max block size limit to prevent attacks on the chain. Among 56 validators who participated, 55 validators including Allnodes, Interstellar Lounge, Interstake One, Jesus Is Lord, Stalely, and others have voted in favor of the proposal.

As CoinGape earlier reported, validators believe this is likely the best option currently until Genuine Labs finds a permanent solution. Notional Labs CEO Jacob Gadikian said the community should also reduce block size to between 850kb and 1mb.

A proposal of increasing gas fees by 10x is also submitted claiming current levels for transactions are extremely low and make attacks feasible and economical.

🌖 LUNC and USTC Prices Rally

LUNC price jumped 10% on in the last 24 hours amid a market-wide recovery, with the price currently trading at $0.0001112. The 24-hour high and low are $0.0001003 and $0.0001131, respectively. Moreover, trading volume increased by 102% in the last 24 hours, indicating a rise in interest among traders.

Meanwhile, USTC price also climbed 20% higher, with the price currently trading at $0.0202. The 24-hour low and high are $0.01745 and $0.02207, respectively.

Varinder has 10 years of experience in the Fintech sector, with over 5 years dedicated to blockchain, crypto, and Web3 developments. Being a technology enthusiast and analytical thinker, he has shared his knowledge of disruptive technologies in over 5000+ news, articles, and papers. With CoinGape Media, Varinder believes in the huge potential of these innovative future technologies. He is currently covering all the latest updates and developments in the crypto industry.

The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.

🌖 Terra Luna Classic Votes to Increase Validator Commission

Tera Luna Classic (LUNC) takes a drastic approach to revolutionize its ecosystem with a series of approved proposals subject to voting. Over the years, developers have pointed out possible risks to the likes of Cosmos, Solana, and the Polkadot ecosystem, proposing proactive measures to mitigate any future spam attack.

To prevent such occurrence on the chain and to raise the minimum validators’ commission from 0% to 2.5%, Proposal 12097 has currently been subjected to voting with quorum and pass threshold reached. At press time, the proposal had received 35 “YES” votes in addition to 32% “NO”, 0.5% “NO WITH VETO”, and 32.50% “ABSTAIN” votes. From the vote, it is obvious most of the validators voted in favor of the proposal.

Commenting on this, one of the top validators Allnodes has observed that the VP of the top 15 validators has reduced drastically, and would be significantly less with the 2.5% commission implementation. As a result of this, he and six other validators voted “NO” compared to 33 validators who voted “YES”.

🌖 More on the Terra Luna Classic (LUNC) Proposals

According to an explanation in regards to this proposal,

“increasing the minimum commission is meant to increase the income especially for small validators to motivate them to invest in better infrastructure and increase resistance against attack.”

Interestingly, the same can be said of Proposal 12094 “Proposal to decrease MaxBlockSize”. This has been approved officially by the Terra Luna Classic community after surpassing the threshold. The developer team Genuine Labs was the chief architect of this proposal and is meant to decrease the MaxBlockSize from 5 MB to 2 MB to mitigate peer-to-peer spam.

With all of these approved to serve the best interest of the ecosystem, Proposal 12095 – 10x Gas Fees which Crypto News Flash extensively covered was voted against because it could severely damage DApps and threaten the existence of an auto-compound module.

In addition to these developments, the Terra Luna Classic community pool balance has also reached a new milestone at an all-time high of 5 billion LUNC. As of April 21, the community pool held 5,005,468,596 LUNC and 11,803,526 USTC. This implies that developers and contributors have access to more funds. However, it has not been utilized to the maximum capacity.

Contrary to the ongoing activities within the community, LUNC has failed to hold its ground as it breaks major support levels to fall by 9% in the last 24 hours, extending its 30-day decline to 39%. At press time, the asset was trading at $0.0001018 with a 5% decline in its 24-hour trading volume.

However, analyst Javon Marks believes that the asset could stage a bullish reversal to surge by 270% amid the bull market. His prediction was based on the formation of a massive bull pennant pattern in the long timeline.

🌖 Do Kwon, Terraform Labs Face $5B Penalty After LUNA Fiasco

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has moved to request billions of dollars in disgorgement and civil penalties from Do Kwon and Terraform Labs, the team behind the ill-fated Terra Luna and UST tokens.

In a recent filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the SEC sought approximately $4.7 billion in disgorgement and prejudgment interest from Terraform Labs and its co-founder, Do Kwon.

Alongside the $4.7 billion for disgorgement and prejudgment, the U.S. regulator requested a total of $520 million in civil penalties. In particular, Terraform Labs is asked to pay $420 million, while Kwon faces a $100 million penalty. Cumulatively, the U.S. regulator is requesting over $5 billion in penalties from Do Kwon and Terraform Labs.

Notably, on April 5, a jury found Terraform and Kwon guilty of defrauding investors concerning statements regarding the offer and sale of TerraUSD (UST), Luna (LUNA), and wLUNA. Meanwhile, Terraform suggested a maximum civil penalty of $5.28 million in its filing, while Kwon proposed approximately $828,000.

On the other hand, in addition to the monetary judgment, the SEC has suggested barring Kwon from holding positions as an officer or director and mandating full disclosure of his accounts and assets.

If approved, Terraform could face a “conduct-based injunction” to prevent the recurrence of the behaviors that led to the extensive fraud. However, these proposed remedies and the civil judgment await the ruling of a judge.

Furthermore, the SEC argued that Terraform and Kwon have shown no remorse for their actions, raising significant concerns about the potential for further violations, which the regulator claims may already be in progress. The filing urges the court to send a clear message that such audacious misconduct will not be tolerated.

🌖 Just-In: Terra Luna Classic Community Revises LUNC Burn Tax

Terra Luna Classic community has approved a proposal to revise the LUNC burn tax. To be more clear, the reward share distribution of the burn tax will be changed instead of the burn tax rate.

Meanwhile, LUNC price loses steam for further recovery as broader crypto market remains under selling pressure ahead of $9.4 billion crypto options expiry.

🌖 Terra Luna Classic Burn Tax Proposal Passed

Proposal 12098 “Changing the Reward Share Distribution of the Burn Tax” is passed successfully by the Terra Luna Classic community. This changes the burn tax distribution to the community pool and Oracle pool.

Notably, the proposal doesn’t change the burn tax rate, nor the amount sent to burn. It just changes the burn tax distribution to oracle pool instead of rewards. The proposal has received 70% votes in favor with 37 validators in support of the proposal.

“The technical details of this can be a bit complex. I will try to simplify some of it at the cost of a little less precision in definitions and numbers. This draft has been up a few weeks ago with more details on block proposer rewards. I removed those parts as proposer rewards will be removed with SDK 0.47, said developer StrathCole.

Terra Classic has a burn tax set to 0.5%. Out of this, 80% is for burn and 20% is distributed as 10% to Community Pool and 10% to rewards. After the proposal, the 20% will be distributed as 10% to Community Pool and 10% to Oracle pool.

Instead of immediate block rewards, the portion from the burn tax would go into long-term staking rewards (Oracle). However, it would decrease the APR by about ~0.5%, which depends on on-chain volumes.