LUNA Classic (LUNC) has been on its best run for 2023 last week. While the mass media was focusing on the bull run of Bitcoin (BTC), the original native governance token of Terra saw massive gains going over 300% in a month.
The resurgence of LUNC has led to the growing optimism that it may be on its way to $1. Let’s examine the viability of this narrative.
LUNC Now
On Friday, May 10, 2024, LUNC stands at $0.000107 on CoinMarketCap, still miles away from its high of $119.18. However, it is unlikely that LUNC will return to its high. Therefore, let’s see if LUNC can reach $1 in the next few months.
The Road to $1
LUNC is still far from its high of $119.18 on April 5, 2022, but has risen since its dip from $0.000069 to $0.000107 on May 10, 2024.
The revival of LUNC is the biggest success story this week in mainstream crypto. It’s still decimals away from the targeted $1 mark, but the momentum built up by the recent buying pressure puts optimism that it may be on the way there before the end of next year.
Coingecko’s on-chain data shows the accumulated trading volume of LUNC smashing the $2 billion bracket lately, displaying a healthy economy for the coin.
Expert analysts, however, warn that the quick upward trend should be coupled with important developments within LUNC’s ecosystem. Without these incentives, investors should always keep a watch for likely pullbacks.
LUNA’s Crash and LUNC’s Road to Recovery
LUNA dramatically crashed last year due to the unstaking of $2 billion worth of UST from the Anchor protocol which was then sold shortly. The action was suspected to be a malicious attack on the Terra blockchain but others claimed it was merely an outcome of bad investment decisions.
The aftermath of the event pulled UST to 91 cents, resulting in holders exchanging their UST supply to LUNA as they have a 1:1 ratio while a unit of the latter can still be traded for $1. This didn’t do anything to improve the state of the coin because UST was algorithmically vital to LUNA’s stability.
The depegging of the UST to the dollar plus the onset of the long crypto bear market triggered a massive sell-off that eventually crumbled the LUNA economy. Following this series of bad luck, major crypto exchanges began delisting LUNA.
In an attempt to salvage what’s left of them, LUNA was rebranded to LUNA Classic (LUNC) and Terra’s stablecoins became Terra Classic as Terra 2.0 was launched. LUNC was listed back in exchanges but it failed to gain traction until now.
Terra’s successful campaign to burn 43 billion LUNC starting in November successfully reduced its inflated token supply and a $15 million seeding revitalized its ecosystem. The huge publicity made by the pump catalyzed renewed interest in LUNC and has consequently led to its recent rally.
Final Thoughts
Since a Bitcoin uptrend tends to push up other tokens in its wake and considering the growing institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies, LUNC prices may see a further push upwards. We’re already at the end of 2023, so the $1 target may be a Hail Mary pass right now, but the possibility is there by 2024 if LUNC keeps its momentum going.