Rechristened Luna Trades After ‘Airdrop’ to Terra Investors

Luna, the new token distributed to investors who saw the value of their cryptocurrencies tied to the Terra blockchain wiped out, has begun trading on digital-asset exchanges.

The Luna token price on the Terra Station Dashboard on a smartphone arranged in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, U.S. (Bloomberg)

Luna, the new token distributed to investors who saw the value of their cryptocurrencies tied to the Terra blockchain wiped out, has begun trading on digital-asset exchanges. 

TerraForm Labs, the developer of the failed blockchain, awarded the tokens in a process referred to as an airdrop to previous holders of Luna and TerraUSD (UST) tokens. The new Luna was trading at about $6.28 per coin, according to price data on CoinGecko.

Under a measure approved earlier this week, the original blockchain was split off and be known as Terra Classic, while Luna, which plunged close to zero this month, was renamed Luna Classic with the ticker LUNC. The new Terra blockchain won't include a stablecoin. 

Despite the billions of dollars lost, Terra has once again generated a buzz in the crypto market with the new Luna 2.0 token giveaway. Before the airdrop, “Luna 2.0” already started trending on social media platforms like Twitter. It has also brought criticism. 

Prior to the airdrop, most major crypto exchanges announced support of the event. According to CoinGecko, most of the trading in the new token is happening on KuCoin and OKX. Millions of the new tokens are already changing hands, data showed. 

Rival blockchains like Polygon and NEAR have been offering financial support to lure ventures from Terra, raising more questions about whether the new Terra will be sustainable.