South Korean crypto traders have recently rushed to buy Terra (LUNA)—a cryptocurrency that lost 99.99% of its value last week when its stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) collapsed, as they believe they have nothing to lose.
There has been a rush of purchasing from speculators hoping that Luna will perform a miraculous rebound, with some sticking to the conviction that it is simply too huge to be allowed to collapse, according to a report by Reuters on May 19.
LUNA was worth about $100 at the end of April, but it is currently selling at a fraction of one cent.
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“LUNA was once a major coin of top-ten market capitalisation, so they will do whatever it takes to revive it,” an optimistic investor said in a blog on South Korea’s online platform Naver, without elaborating on who “they” may be.
The blogger said that during the course of the weekend, he used a global cryptocurrency exchange to purchase 300,000 Luna at a price of 0.33 won ($0.0003) per coin.
Meanwhile, Elliptic, a blockchain analytics company, estimates that investors who purchased either of these tokens have lost over $42 billion. Both tokens are associated with Terra, a blockchain platform that was co-founded by Do Kwon, a Korean developer.
LUNA purchases on South Korean authorities’ radar
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission picked up the unexpected uptick in purchasing on Tuesday, and they issued a warning to the public to refrain from investing in Luna as a result.
According to a source at the FSC who, as is customary for South Korean bureaucrats, declined to be named, the number of people who invested in the defunct cryptocurrency increased by more than fifty percent in just over two days at South Korea’s major exchanges, reaching a total of 280,000 as of May 15.
Per the source, the majority of the purchasing came from local speculators, but there was also some money coming in from other countries.
Not long left to bet on LUNA
The time for speculation is drawing to a close as Bithumb and Upbit, two of South Korea’s main exchanges, have announced that they would discontinue trading support for Luna on May 27 and May 20, respectively.
Additionally, Coinone has suspended deposits in the cryptocurrency in preparation for a probable de-listing on May 25. This reduces the amount of time available for speculating.
The price of the token has not been significantly affected by the purchase. Over the course of the last week, it has fluctuated between one-hundredth and four-hundredths of a cent.
However, the tendency of South Koreans, especially younger generations, to invest in volatile and hazardous assets such as stocks and cryptocurrencies has authorities concerned.
Notably, Luna had been one of the most widely used cryptocurrencies in the world, and its demise, along with that of TerraUSD, created mayhem throughout the global crypto market, with the value of Bitcoin dropping by about a quarter between May 9 and May 12.
