Terra 2.0 Is Now Live, Following Luna Meltdown. This Week’s Top Bitcoin and Crypto News

Terra launched a new blockchain with a new luna token on Saturday. Seth Green’s animated show starring his stolen NFT is up in the air. And the largest stablecoin issuer in the world launched a token for the Mexican peso. Here’s what happened in crypto during the week.

Terra ‘forks’ into new blockchain with a new luna token

On Saturday, terra 2.0 officially went live, less than a month after two linked cryptocurrencies called terraUSD and luna imploded. The prices of both tokens went down to a few cents or less in under a week, and people who bought the digital currencies lost almost all of their investment. 

A community of luna and terra holders voted to make a new blockchain earlier this week. The vote passed, and the @terra_money Twitter account said Friday that Block 1 of the new blockchain had been produced. The new blockchain is called terra, while the original one will be called terra classic. 

Both luna classic and terraUSD are still trading for almost nothing, with luna classic worth well under a penny. Terra is also holding an “airdrop” giveaway in which luna and terraUSD holders could receive the new luna cryptocurrency to incentivize the new blockchain.

A few crypto exchanges, including Binance and Crypto.com, are publicly supporting the new Terra blockchain. Coinbase hasn’t confirmed if it’ll support the new luna cryptocurrency — as of Friday, the US-based exchange said all trades involving terraUSD are suspended. 

Read CNET’s full story on the new terra blockchain here.

Seth Green wanted his Bored Ape NFT to star in an animated show. Then someone stole it

Actor and writer Seth Green fell victim to a phishing scam last week and lost an expensive NFT from the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club collection. After Green’s NFT was stolen, it was relisted for sale. Someone using the pseudonym of DarkWing84 bought the Bored Ape NFT not long after it was phished. Green reached out to the anonymous buyer publicly on Twitter wanting to make a deal to get it back.

On top of losing the NFT, Green may be dealing with an intellectual property headache. Green has been working on an animated series that would star the Bored Ape NFT, called White Horse Tavern. In the show, the Bored Ape NFT character is a bartender at the titular tavern. Green debuted the trailer for it at a convention this month. But now that someone else owns the NFT, the question is, can the show still go on?

Bored Ape Yacht Club allows people who own a Bored Ape NFT to use it for commercial purposes. People have used their Bored Ape NFTs to promote a coffee company and even to create a band. But with copyright laws around NFTs still being sussed out, it’s unclear exactly how or if the stolen NFT creates copyright issues for Green’s show. 

Read CNET’s full story on Green’s Stolen NFT and what it could mean for the show here.

Tether launches stablecoin pegged to Mexican peso

Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer in the world, launched a new stablecoin Thursday with a price pegged to the Mexican peso. The name of the stablecoin is MXNT and each token is worth one Mexican peso. “We have seen a rise in cryptocurrency usage in Latin America over the last year that has made it apparent that we need to expand our offerings,” said Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino in the announcement. 

Americans will likely be most familiar with USDT, the tether stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. Tether also issues stablecoins pegged to the price of the euro and the Chinese yuan. 

Tether stablecoins are backed by assets, which the company holds to keep the price of its tokens stable. The company was fined millions of dollars by the US twice last year for making misleading statements about its asset reserves. 

Thanks for reading. We’ll be back with plenty more next week. In the meantime, check out CNET’s series of stories on Making the Metaverse.