Terra's Tendermint Touch — Cosmos-Based Token Economy Hit Hard by LUNA's Demise

Since last week’s Terra implosion and the demise of the blockchain project’s native token LUNA — and the algorithmic stablecoin terrausd (UST) — crypto tokens based on the Cosmos ecosystem have seen significant losses. Two months ago, the top Cosmos ecosystem coins collectively were worth $61.6 billion and since then, the Cosmos economy has lost more than 75% in value, dropping to $15.2 billion.

Terra’s Fallout Stirs Cosmos Token Ecosystem

The blockchain project Terra is a Cosmos-based network, which leverages the consensus protocol Tendermint, the Cosmos SDK, and the Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC). Terra’s network has a native token called LUNA and a suite of algorithmic fiat-pegged tokens such as terrausd (UST).

Last week, UST lost its $1 parity and after the de-pegging event, LUNA’s value dropped well below a U.S. penny per unit. Terra’s fallout not only rippled across the crypto economy, but it wreaked significant havoc across the Cosmos ecosystem tokens built with the open-source Tendermint protocol.

For instance, on March 7, 2022, all the Cosmos-based crypto assets combined were worth $61.6 billion. At the time, terra (LUNA) was changing hands on that day for $79.55 per LUNA, in contrast to today’s price of $0.00020932 per unit. LUNA has lost 99.9997% in value over the past two months.

Cronos (CRO) changed hands for $0.38 two months ago and today, on May 16, 2022, CRO is trading for $0.19 per coin. Cosmos (ATOM) traded for $28.95 per unit on March 7, and today a single ATOM trades for $11.27 per coin. While LUNA was the top Cosmos-based token two months ago, today the largest Cosmos ecosystem token market cap is held by CRO with its market cap around $4.95 billion on Monday.

ATOM currently holds the second-largest position with its $3.2 billion market valuation and LUNA is the third-largest Cosmos ecosystem token with its $1.44 billion market cap. Other notable Cosmos ecosystem tokens that follow LUNA’s market valuation include thorchain (RUNE), osmosis (OSMO), and kadena (KDA).

Two months ago on March 7, RUNE was exchanging hands for $4.36 per unit, and on May 16, the price is around $3.23. Osmosis was swapping for $9.89 per unit on March 7, yet today it only trades for $1.64 per unit. Similarly, kadena (KDA) was trading for $6.07 per unit two months ago and on May 16, the price per KDA is $2.96.

Cosmos Tokens Besides Terra’s LUNA Increased More Than 28% in Value Collectively Since May 12

The Terra fiasco did a lot of damage to the Cosmos ecosystem, causing it to lose more than 75% in USD value since that point. The same can be said about the decentralized finance (defi) sector, as Terra’s demise rattled defi, and over $100 billion total value locked in defi was either removed voluntarily or liquidated.

While the Cosmos token ecosystem took a beating from the Terra implosion, most of the value lost within the past two months took place last week. In fact, the Cosmos token economy has grown since May 12, 2022, as the market valuation was around $11.8 billion that day.

The Cosmos token ecosystem has increased in value by 28.81% since May 12, but the value increase did not go near Terra’s LUNA. On May 12, LUNA was trading for $0.013 which is 98.35% less than what LUNA is trading for today.