TerraClassicUSD

The founders of TerraUSD are Do Kwon and Daniel Shin, who founded Terra (LUNA) in April 2019 and launched TerraUSD on Bittrex Global in September 2020. Do Kwon is the CEO of Terraform Labs, a former software engineer at Microsoft and Apple, and is included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list of the world's most successful entrepreneurs. Daniel Shin is a talented economist and entrepreneur, co-founder of Fast Track Asia and TMON (Ticket Monster), a South Korean e-commerce platform.

In May 2022, TerraUSD (UST) experienced a dramatic depeg from its $1 parity, plunging to a low of $0.68. The primary causes were a combination of factors: Increased selling pressure on UST, as holders rushed to cash out their UST for other stablecoins, creating a "bank run" scenario. Downward price pressure on LUNA, the collateral asset for UST, due to short-selling. This forced Terra to mint more LUNA to try and restore the UST peg, further diluting the LUNA supply. Attempts by the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) to defend the peg, including a $1.5 billion sale of BTC from their reserves, were ultimately unsuccessful in restoring faith in the UST stablecoin.

After the collapse of the original Terra ecosystem, TerraUSD was rebranded as TerraClassicUSD (USTC) and became part of the newly forked Terra Classic blockchain. USTC is currently trading at around $0.015, representing a significant decline from its previous $1 peg. The future of USTC and the broader Terra Classic ecosystem remains uncertain, as the community continues to work on potential recovery efforts and plans for the network's future.