What happened
Today's impressive move in former high-flying cryptocurrency Terra Luna Classic (LUNC -9.25%) has sparked renewed interest in this hard-hit token. This token's surge of 12.2% over the past 24 hours, as of 12:15 p.m. ET today, stands in stark contrast to an overall crypto market that's on the decline alongside equities today.
While few explicit explanations for this move exist, other than renewed speculative interest in "meme-like" rallies among hard-hit cryptos right now, there is one specific news item that may be invigorating LUNC investors today. The fact that Cardano's (ADA -6.49%) Djed algorithmic stablecoin has hit its network's mainnet may be compelling news for investors considering the revitalization of such tokens moving forward. Today's price action has been more muted for Cardano, which is roughly flat over the past 24 hours, though the token did see a nice surge in yesterday's session.
So what
The key question many investors had following the incredible collapse of the Terra Luna (LUNA -10.09%) ecosystem last year was: Will algorithmic stablecoins ever become viable, or is this space one that's forever doomed?
The original token of the Terra blockchain, which gave rise to its UST stablecoin (now USTC), Terra was among the first blockchains to incorporate a so-called algorithmic stablecoin, which kept its peg to the U.S. dollar simply by minting or burning LUNA tokens.
Unfortunately, a death spiral in which the sudden loss of value in Terra's LUNA token sparked selling in Terra's UST stablecoin, resulting in the loss of this stablecoin's peg and the ultimate demise of the entire project. Investors in other algorithmic stablecoin projects have seen similar selling pressure, making the launch of a new algorithmic stablecoin rather shocking.
Now what
If Cardano's Djed stablecoin can indeed shift the discussion around algorithmic stablecoins in a positive direction or not remains to be seen. This is a project that's just a few days old, and investors will likely need to see a relatively robust track record before giving any credence to this unproven theoretical idea.
That said, Cardano's developer team is notoriously scrupulous. A number of upcoming developments are expected, which entail its Djed stablelcoin becoming the backbone for growth. If Cardano can pull this off, perhaps there's something that can be done with this disgraced project. We'll see.
For now, I think this token needs to remain in the highly speculative bucket. That said, this is the first time I've looked at this token in a while, and I suspect that's the same for many readers. Now may be the time to at least keep an eye on LUNC -- who knows what can happen in the coming days and weeks?
