May 16, 2022
Cost of Failed UST Peg Defense: $2.9 Billion in Reserves Spent
Bloomberg News
,(Bloomberg) --
The gigantic cost of the failed attempt to prop up the collapsed TerraUSD stablecoin is coming into clearer focus.
The Luna Foundation Guard, the nonprofit set up by Terraform Labs to maintain TerraUSD’s peg to the dollar, burned through roughly $2.9 billion in cryptocurrency reserves since May 7 trying to stabilize the token, data compiled by Bloomberg based on figures released Monday on LFG’s unverified Twitter account show.
LFG held 80,394 Bitcoin as of that day, before TerraUSD (UST) started dropping from its peg, it said in its tweet. Based on the May 7 closing price, the Bitcoin hoard was then worth $2.88 billion. LFG said it now holds 313 Bitcoin, worth about $9.3 million at current market prices.
LFG also sold off holdings of the Tether and USDC stablecoins in its attempt to bring UST back to its dollar peg, according to its Twitter posting. UST is trading at below 10 cents, data compiled by Bloomberg show. LFG didnt’t immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
In total, LFG’s crypto reserves stood at almost $3.2 billion on May 7, calculations based on the tweet show. The remaining reserves, worth about $236 million at current prices according to Bloomberg-compiled data, will be used to compensate UST holders, with the smallest ones first in line, LFG said.
Read more: This Is How the Terra Stablecoin Actually Imploded
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