Q4 Terra Updates for y'all Lunatics out there

With major crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum hitting a volatile period after a solid third Quarter, the close of the year sees a pause in the recent market uptrend for many blockchains - some are set to buck the trend

Since the Columbus-5 deployment at the end of September, the Terra ecosystem has experienced significant growth, both in market capitalization and the number of projects that are being launched. In the article below, we will break down some of the most important milestones achieved in the past few months:

1. Terra enables IBC

Since Cosmos launched Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) to enable cross-chain DeFi last March, there are now 18 enabled chains after Terra’s inclusion such as Cosmos Hub (ATOM), IRISnet (IRIS), Osmosis (OSMO) and Crypto.com (CRO). With over 20 billion of market capitalization, Terra not only brings its native LUNA token to the Cosmos interconnected ecosystem, but also UST, its decentralized stablecoin.
The move into Cosmos is expected to be very helpful for the progress of DeFi in the ecosystem. Stablecoins are one of the most important building blocks for decentralized finance, and the inclusion of UST will likely open up further use cases for the Terra-based stablecoin, helping provide a stablecoin for Cosmos-based applications.
As a consequence, UST surpassed 8 billion market cap at the beginning of December - a fast growth trajectory with over 100% increase in the last 2 months and expected continuing trend as more projects rely on it on various interconnected blockchains.

1. Risk Harbor to take over control of Terra’s Ozone Protocol
   

Ozone is an insurance mutual protocol that covers technical failure risks in the Terra decentralized finance ecosystem. Using Ozone, insurers are covered when smart contracts do not execute properly on the Terra Network.

Ozone insurance mitigates two types of risks to lenders:

On one hand, there’s the smart contract risk. That is, they are often the most vulnerable points for cyber-attack and technology failures. Like any other software code, smart contracts can be hacked, so they require robust testing and adequate controls to mitigate potential risks.

On the other hand, UST, Terra’s stablecoin, has a depegging risk where the value diverges from the US dollar.

Apart from Ozone, Terra has also announced a Bitcoin liquidity pool to mitigate depegging risk. If depegging ever happens, the Bitcoin deposited in the pool will be used to stabilize the price of UST.

Currently undergoing an audit from Oak Security and Certik, Risk Harbor’s technical team will manage and maintain Ozone after the Terra community governance vote, according to a press release published in the first week of the month.

Risk Harbor is an Ethereum-based DeFi risk management marketplace that utilizes an automated, transparent and impartial claims process to protect liquidity providers and stakers against smart contract hacks and attacks.

The announcement of the partnership between Ozone and Risk Harbor has led to the launch of the Arrington Anchor Yield Fund.

1. Arrington XRP Capital launches The Arrington Anchor Yield Fund

Arrington XRP Capital, a digital asset management firm in blockchain-based capital markets, announced last week the launch of Arrington Anchor Yield Fund.

Anchored by Arrington Capital partners and with capital from Terraform Labs itself, the fund is limited to $100 million in size and is aimed at qualified non-crypto investors who also want exposure to Anchor yield.

1. Over 88 million Luna tokens to be burnt before mid December

In accordance with Terra proposal #44, the Terra community approved burning 88,675,000 LUNA from the stablecoin community pool to mint about 4 to 5 billion terraUSD stablecoins.

As a consequence, UST surpassed 8 billion market cap at the beginning of December - a fast growth trajectory with over 100% increase in the last 2 months and expected continuing trend as more projects rely on it on various interconnected blockchains.

The swap took place during the last two weeks with exchanges taking place every 800th block. The measure aims to fund new services such as Ozone insurance. This burn is one of the largest of a major layer 1 token in crypto history.

The initiative hasn’t gone unnoticed in the markets, putting a lot of buying pressure on the LUNA token, hitting all-time highs as the proposal was being approved. Subsequent burning has contributed to significant and sustained LUNA token price growth.

1. Mars Protocol set to launch with a lockdrop

Set to launch in early 2022, Mars is an automated bank built on the Terra blockchain that will allow customers to borrow with interest rates determined by algorithms. The key differentiator with Mars is that decisions on lending are controlled by the governance stakers - essentially savers – who also take on some of the risk.

Mars is, in essence, a Blockchain ‘Mutual’ owned by its members (stakers) and run with controls and adjustable interest charge mechanisms, loan liquidation checks and balances that will allow borrowing, rewards for saving and risk management. Mars will, in the future, offer opportunities to leverage Terra assets to invest and borrow against LTV and liquidation considerations.

1. Glow Yield to distribute 50M tokens to various Terra participants

Among all this positive news, more projects are launching on the Terra blockchain every week. The latest to announce a new airdrop was Glow Yield, a DeFi platform that leverages Anchor Yield to offer users a wide set of products that are easy and fun to invest in.
Through their official Medium account, as well as through Twitter and Discord, they announced a 50M GLOW token airdrop to LUNA stakers, Anchor stakers, Anchor depositors, Anchor holders and Mine Stakers.

At the same time, they’ll create three pools on Pylon Gateway where they’ll distribute 21M GLOW tokens in vesting periods of 6, 12 and 18 months respectively. Additional 4M GLOW will be allocated in future endeavours with the Pylon community.

Glow bridges the gap between traditional finance and crypto DeFI, allowing users to earn higher interest compared to traditional savings accounts while providing no-loss lotteries, or patron-like platforms to support content creators in exchange for exclusive content.

1. NFT markets developed in the final quarter of 2021

Another emerging sector within the Terra ecosystem is NFTs. The first projects launched in September and three months later over 60 projects have already launched across the newly established marketplaces and launchpads including Knowhere Art, Random Earth and Talis Protocol. First collections selling out in minutes has given way to smaller projects that didn’t get much attention in the first place. It’s a nascent space but one that is driving investment to Terra often by users bridging from Ethereum.

Latest launches include a horse racing game called Derby Stars where you can buy, breed and race your own horse. The minting events took place in early December - the first two elements of sale both quickly sold out including a public sale of 1500 horses that sold out in 10 seconds! The appetite for NFT projects in Terra is growing.

Another project worth mentioning is Levana, an NFT programme based on the lifecycle of a dragon, beginning with events where you can buy meteors that can be cracked to find out if you have an egg that could lead to a dragon minting opportunity.