Terra NFT Market Sees Trading Spike Amid UST Collapse

Though Ethereum is home to some of the most dominant NFTs, at least a dozen other blockchains mint the digital collectibles — including Terra, which collectors have turned to thanks to comparably lower gas fees. 

Amid the collapse of Terra’s stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and its sister token, LUNA, NFT (non-fungible token) projects built on Terra have seen a considerable uptick in trading as savvy traders look to cash in on deep price discrepancies. 

The daily volume of NFT trading on popular Terra marketplaces Random Earth, Knowhere and Luart is the highest it’s been since March 1, according to data aggregator Flipside Crypto. Terra’s NFT daily volume on May 11 reached 3.1 million UST ($2.1 million), up from 384,769 UST the day before. 

Random Earth and Knowhere also observed their highest days of trading volume on May 11. After never surpassing 11,000 LUNA, volume on Random Earth skyrocketed to 438,665 LUNA ($485,263), while Knowhere reached 6,005 LUNA at the time of publication.

Some of the most highly traded Terra NFT collections include Galactic Punks, Hell Cats, Derby Stars and Luna Bulls. Twitter user @RyanBethencourt pointed out the rapid repricing of NFTs, specifically on Random Earth, and questioned if their value would hold if Terra were to “fall into a death spiral.”

Users of another Terra NFT marketplace, OnePlanet, took to Discord to report transaction delays — traders said the digital assets didn’t immediately show up in their wallets after the purchase closed. 

And those who couldn’t delist their NFTs in time were promised an investigation by Discord moderators.

A sweep through crypto Twitter showed mixed sentiment among investors. User @PostmanNay claimed, “All nfts on terra are now as worthless as the luna token.” 

Another user, @c4chaos, called for compassion for those may have lost their life savings.

Terra NFT collection PolyEgg asked Twitter followers which blockchain to move to, because “it’s not a good idea to continue minting” on Terra. While Solana was a popular pick, seasoned LUNA investors, known as “LUNAtics,” continue to scoop up Terra NFTs.