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All Events
May 12, 2022Market Crash

Luna/Terra Crash

The $40 billion algorithmic stablecoin death spiral

10

Fear & Greed

Extreme Fear

Bitcoin Price

$27,000

30-Day Change

-35%

What Happened

The Terra/LUNA collapse in May 2022 was a watershed moment for crypto markets. The algorithmic stablecoin UST lost its dollar peg, triggering a death spiral that destroyed $40 billion in value within days. LUNA went from $80 to near-zero, UST depegged permanently, and the contagion spread to Three Arrows Capital, Celsius, Voyager, and eventually FTX. The event fundamentally changed how media and regulators viewed stablecoins, accelerating regulatory conversations globally and killing the algorithmic stablecoin narrative almost entirely.

Key Narratives

Stablecoin riskDeFi contagionRegulatory urgency