Terra (LUNA) might not be new to the crypto space but its recent rise to the top has no doubt taken the market by surprise. Not only has this growth seen the value of its token soar but it has also put its market cap on an accelerated growth rate. This has propelled it to become one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, having beaten out large players like Cardano (ADA) and Avalanche (AVAX) in the last week alone.

Terra Enters Top 10

In its recent run-up, the cryptocurrency has been able to beat out some of the most valuable projects in the market. Its success has been a direct result of its staking offerings that promise users more returns than any other project in the space. By staking UST, the native stablecoin of the network, users can get as high as 40% APY on their investments using some available DeFi protocols. 

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During the last bull run in April, LUNA had touched as high as $119 per coin, thus recording a new ATH. The digital asset is now below this ATH value, nevertheless, its current value still makes it a strong contender as one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies in the market.

Its current price of $90.79 has seen its market cap rise as high as $31.7 billion. This puts it ahead of strong contenders like Cardano and Avalanche and only $3 billion below the cryptocurrency currently occupying 7th place on the list, which happens to be Solana.

LUNA breaks above $90 | Source: LUNAUSD on TradingView.com

The price of LUNA also looks to be closely mirroring that of top assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. It is currently in the green as a result of this and is up 16.97% in the last 24 hours alone. Making it one of the highest gainers on Tuesday. If the digital asset continues on the trend, possibly surpassing its previous all-time high, then it will likely overtake Solana and Ripple, which is currently the 6th largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

UST On The Rise

LUNA is not the only cryptocurrency in the Terra ecosystem that has been making waves in recent times. The stablecoin UST has quickly become one of the most widely used stablecoins in the crypto space. This has pushed it upwards in value, setting it up to contend for a space in the top 10.

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UST is now the third-largest stablecoin by market cap in the world, only behind top players USDT and USDC. It has since surpassed competitor Binance USD (BUSD) in terms of market cap, beating out the latter’s $17.3 billion by $300 million to be sitting at 13th place with a market cap of $17.6 billion.

This market cap also puts it right behind Polkadot and beloved meme coin Dogecoin. With the growth trajectory of Terra, it will be no surprise if the market cap of UST were to overtake these projects to start its campaign to enter the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap list.

Featured image from TheNewsCrypto, chart from TradingView.com