LUNA rallies, Bitcoin jumps above $39k as war in Ukraine continues

Some days make it difficult to find joy, even as crypto markets are rallying. Nevertheless, the losses made since the outbreak of the tragic war between Russia and Ukraine have largely recovered and markets are generally in the green on the daily.

As many times before, bitcoin leads the way by the share weight of the leading cryptocurrency by market cap. Bitcoin (BTC) is essentially back to the same levels as before the outbreak of the conflict, jumping over $39,000 for the first time since Wednesday last week. Trading at $39500 at press time, bitcoin is up 11.3% on the daily, but still down 2.9% on the week.

LUNA comes out as the winner

At the same time, ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is up 14.5% in the past 24 hours, trading at $2,700 at press time, though still down 5.5% on the week.

Meanwhile, of the top 10 cryptocurrencies, Terra’s LUNA token comes out as the big winner. LUNA is up 26.6% in the past 24 hours, and up 33.2% on the week, trading at press time above $67. LUNA has been pushed by a reliable tailwind no matter the time frame. The token is up a handsome 902% the last year.

By comparison, those who bought bitcoin a year ago are down 20.5%, while ethereans can celebrate a gain of 67.5% over the same time period.

Terra, the makers of the LUNA token, has seen some positive developments in recent times. Two months ago, major exchanges listed Terra’s UST stablecoin, which had a positive effect on the value of the LUNA token as it reached an all-time-high over $100 at the end of December.

Terra raised $1 billion in funding, bitcoin UST reserve

Also, activity in the LUNA ecosystem is picking up steam. Total Value Locked (TVL) in the ecosystem amounts to $18.6 billion at press time, according to data from DeFi Llama. TVL reached all-time-high on the 27th of December at just over $21 billion.

Just two days ago it was announced that Terra raised $1 billion in funding to create a bitcoin reserve for the UST stablecoin. This means bitcoin will constitute a share of the backing of the UST token. The LUNA token is now the ninth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap with a total value of over $25.6 billion.

The two leading cryptocurrencies both reached their all-time-highs on November 10 last year, reaching $69,044 and $4,878 respectively. Since then, bitcoin is down 42.6% and ether has lost 44.1%.

As the geopolitical developments are highly uncertain in the near future, readers should beware of high volatility in markets in the coming days and weeks.