Near (NEAR) Token Surges by 23% After Terra Integration

The crypto industry started to bounce back up at the start of this week, but even though a lot of coins started seeing growth, most of them did not surge nearly as much as Near (NEAR), which skyrocketed by 23% this Wednesday, reaching $10.80.

The price boost came after the announcement of the project’s integration with Terra, a well-known decentralized payments network. The announcement was made on Tuesday night, and by Wednesday, the demand for NEAR managed to push the coin up by 23%, as mentioned.

UST gets supported by the Near network

Thanks to the integration, Terra’s popular stablecoin, the UST token, became supported by the high-speed Near network. Prior to the announcement, the price of NEAR was at $8.6. Soon after the integration was made public, however, the project’s token started to surge, hitting a $9.5 resistance, and while it was briefly kept by it, it soon fell to the bullish wave that surrounded the project and pushed it up to $10.80.

Terra’s UST managed to come to Near’s network thanks to Terra’s partnership with DeFi tools Rose and NearPad. According to the developers, issuing UST on Near will allow the growth of the UST within new ecosystems, which currently include Near and Aurora, a bridge that allows assets to move between Ethereum and Near networks.

Terra itself has a growing user base, and by expanding from its own network and integrating into new ones, the project aims to create new use cases for both, its token and its blockchain. The strategy has worked out well so far, as Terra became the second-largest DeFi ecosystem in the world as of this Tuesday, December 21st. At the time, its TVL managed to exceed $18 billion combined from a variety of different products and services.

Meanwhile, Rose — an Aurora-based stablecoin and wrapped assets swap product — and NearPad — Near’s DEX and market maker — will offer new opportunities for users, allowing them to deposit UST liquidity into the protocols in exchange for rewards. And, by providing liquidity, they will make it available for the rest of the NEAR community.

The project’s co-founder, Illia Polusukhin, stated that stablecoins like UST offer a simple interface for storing value and interacting with applications that require a stable unit of account, which is UST’s biggest use case at the moment. However, Polosukhin added that using Allbridge to connect NEAR and Terra ecosystems will now increase its use cases, and furthermore, allow apps like NearPad and Rose to make the stablecoin useful to both projects communities.

UST becomes the world’s largest decentralized stablecoin

Another thing worth noting is that UST is a decentralized stablecoin, and that it is currently the largest decentralized stablecoin in the world. This milestone was also reached this Tuesday, December 21st, as the token’s circulating supply reached $9 billion worth of coins. At this moment, the stablecoin is supported by Terra, Ethereum, BSC, Secret network, and now Near, as well.

Meanwhile, Terra also features its native LUNA tokens, which have been among the top performers over the last several months. LUNA surged by 12% yesterday, exceeding $95 as of yesterday, December 22nd. It reached this height after going up for nearly a month, with its starting price being $41.

To learn more about either projects, visit our Investing in Near Protocol guide or our Investing in Terra guide.