KEY POINTS

  • USTC's price surged Thursday
  • The reason behind the surge is unclear
  • TerraClassicUSD (USTC) was trading down 9.19% at $0.03616 Friday

The price of the TerraClassicUSD (USTC), the algorithmic stablecoin of the Terra ecosystem, that nosedived in May witnessed a double-digit spike in intraday Thursday amid other major cryptocurrencies trading in red and some seeing minimal gains.

Data from CoinMarketCap on Thursday showed that the value of TerraClassicUSD (USTC) surged to 12% at $0.042 with its trading volume soaring 180%. The reason for the sudden spike in its price is unclear, but many industry watchers credited the newly-passed proposal, which reduces the tax burn from 1.2% to 0.2%.

Others claimed it could be due to the recent statements by Terraform Labs' CEO and co-founder Do Kwon during an interview with the Unchained podcast. Kwon answered major issues thrown against him and TFL, including the question about him being on the run and the alleged millions' worth of withdrawals he made post-Terra collapse.

The CEO also said during the interview that he believed in the stability of Terra's algorithmic stablecoin UST and apologized to investors for what happened.

"I am sorry... I believed in the stability of UST, and I do understand that my beliefs and statements about how stable and safe UST would be led a lot of traders and holders, without the tools to understand the complex economic mechanisms underpinning UST, to gain confidence in a system that ultimately failed. And, I do apologize and I do own up to the full responsibility of that," he said in the podcast.

"In the process of people dealing with this grief, there have been a lot of people making allegations like 'it was a fraud,' or 'Do Kwon probably shorted UST,' or 'there was theft or embezzlement going on... I've been a founder of crypto for the last five years. I... hold the transparency, openness, and integrity of this industry quite highly, and even to this day, I am proud of the integrity by which...we tried to create our protocols, the work that we did, and the values that we tried to defend," Kwon further said.

As of 2:19 a.m. ET Friday, TerraClassicUSD (USTC) was trading down 9.19% at $0.03616 with a 24-hour volume of $51,685,923, according to the latest data from CoinMarketCap.

What Are Terra Stablecoins
Terra released a set of explainer videos in September 2020 in partnership with CoinMarketCap Terra Official YouTube Account