LUNA Eyes Gigantic Comeback As Crypto Exchanges Throw Their Weight Behind “Terra’s Rebirth”

The Terra team has confirmed the launch of the upcoming Terra 2.0 network on Friday, May 27, 2022, with LUNA being airdropped to eligible holders of LUNC, USTC, and UST upon genesis.

According to a medium post dated May 26, the Terra team stated that it plans on distributing 30% of the LUNA airdrop “immediately” at Genesis to pre-attack users who had wallets that had less than 10,000 LUNA or who had deposited UST in Anchor, a lending and borrowing protocol. It would also airdrop the said assets to post-attack users with any quantity of LUNA and or UST before the attack before distributing LUNA to other eligible users.

Terra also stated that the new chain will support all assets, chains, bridges, and Centralized exchanges (CEXs), enabling those who receive their tokens to transact immediately. Following the announcement, crypto exchanges have responded.

Upbit, the largest crypto exchange in South Korea by traded volume stated that it will support Terra’s rebranding and airdrops. As per a Thursday announcement, the exchange said that “existing LUNA will be renamed to Luna classic (LUNC) and new LUNA tokens will be airdropped to existing LUNA holders.” To facilitate smooth distribution, the exchange also noted that it would suspend the withdrawal of LUNC (formerly Luna) from 19:00 Korean time on May 26.

FTX also said that it will support the LUNA airdrop and suspend LUNA and UST deposits and withdrawals today. The exchange however noted that details including timing, implementation, and amounts would be announced separately. 

Gate.io also announced its support for the migration, noting that LUNA and UST on the original would be renamed as LUNC and USTC respectively as per the governance proposal 1623 by the Terra team. As of writing, Gate.io has suspended LUNA margin borrowing and lending services and tuned perpetual contracts to reduce-only mode.

Later in the day, Binance, the largest crypto exchange globally also issued a statement backing Terra’s “rebirth” plan, noting that it “will support the rebranding of the Terra network to the Terra Classic network and its airdrop program.” The exchange proceeded to state that it would halt any transactions on LUNA and UST today before resuming on Monday, May 30.

On Wednesday, Binance tweeted that it was “working closely with the Terra team on the recovery plan, aiming to provide impacted users on Binance with the best possible treatment,” which explains the long delay to resume trading compared to other exchanges. Kucoin, Bitfinex, Bitrue, Huobi, and Bybit among others have also declared their support for the airdrop.

Meanwhile, Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon refuted a report on Wednesday that he had contacted the top 5 exchanges in Korea asking for a LUNC and USTC listing.