Terra (LUNA) hits top 100 despite losses, can Nugget Rush flip it?

Despite its collapse in 2022, Terra (LUNA) is now one of the top altcoins by market cap, according to Coingecko data on December 20. The coin was trading at above $0.95, pushing its market cap to over $579 million. LUNA ranked #99 on Coinmarketcap at press time.

It’s latest performance saw LUNA flipping some of the top decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, including PancakeSwap (CAKE) and Curve (CRV). 

Despite the general optimism, LUNA is down 95% from all-time highs. It also faces stiff competition from new projects that offer even higher returns.

Among them is Nugget Rush (NUGX), a project whose supporters believe will grow bigger than LUNA in the months ahead and strategically stand in a position to boom. NUGX rides on the meme coin culture that has propelled ERC-20 tokens like PepeCoin (PEPE) and others to record valuations in 2023 alone.

The question remains: In the coming days, does Nugget Rush have what it takes to flip the resurgent Terra?

Why is Terra rallying?

At its peak, Terra was a decentralized finance (DeFi)-focused platform with its algorithmic stablecoin, UST, and governance token, LUNA.

It promised a scalable platform, offering low fees and being overly decentralized. At the same time, the project’s developers said founders ready to deploy protocols would do so on Terra without concerns of isolation or scalability–unlike in Ethereum, where gas fees had risen to astronomical levels, discouraging participation.

However, LUNA, once good crypto to buy, collapsed as the team failed to maintain the UST to USD peg, forcing the foundation to mint and sell more LUNA to stabilize. This decision led to dilution and, eventually, the collapse of Terra, which was once worth over $20 billion in market cap.

The new Terraform Labs CEO, Chris Amani, said LUNA prices are recovering primarily because the team decided to continue building, regardless of market conditions.

We have 3 projects on the shelf, close to complete, looking for teams to finish off and launch on Terra. If you have a team to take one and want to learn more, let @mc_ust know.

— Chris Amani | Terra (@fleece_cannon) July 20, 2023

Amani also mentioned Terra’s position, saying it was one of the largest within the broader Cosmos ecosystem despite the collapse in 2022 and the reputation damage amid ongoing legal struggles by the former CEO, Do Kown.

Will Nugget Rush flip LUNA?

Nugget Rush supporters believe the project can explode and even flip LUNA in the next crypto bull run. There are multiple reasons why NUGX investors are bullish on the project’s prospects.

Nugget Rush aims to tap into the increasingly popular meme coin trend, whose combined market cap stands at over $19 billion as of mid-December 2023.

NUGX, the ERC-20 coin powering Nugget Rush, is also relatively cheap at spot rates.

In the ongoing presale, which has seen Nugget Rush raise over $1 million, NUGX is available for 0.013 USDT in round 3 of the presale. Over 96 million NUGX has been sold to investors who expect token prices to reach 0.02 USDT by the end of the crowdfunding event.

NUGX serves as a medium of exchange, allowing gamers participating in Nugget Rush’s play-to-earn (P2E) game to swap their in-game items for other top NFTs or NUGX.

At the same time, NUGX holders participate in governance since the project creators aim to be community-facing. In that regard, the team will renounce its smart contracts, allowing NUGX token holders to take over.

Supporters are bullish, expecting NUGX prices to tear even higher due to Nugget Rush’s decision to integrate P2E gaming, support NFT staking for reward distribution, and focus on decentralization while allowing the community to have a say in how the project evolves.

Conclusion

As crypto sentiment improves and top crypto coins like Bitcoin (BTC) rally towards crucial resistance levels, potent microcap “moonshot” coins like NUGX will likely surge. 

#Bitcoin fighting to continue going upwards here.

I'm expecting $48-51K pre-ETF to be reached, but also a peak on Bitcoin in January, through which money quickly shifts towards #Altcoins. pic.twitter.com/dnrluz5U9G

— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) December 21, 2023

Backers say NUGX’s mixture of speculation and social good makes it appealing. While Terra struggles with past baggage, Nugget Rush starts fresh without governance failures or stablecoin crashes.

Accordingly, analysts predict NUGX to surge in 2024, especially if BTC continues shooting higher, probably above $69,000, registered in late November 2021. For all things NUGX you can visit the NuggetRush presale website.

The post Terra (LUNA) hits top 100 despite losses, can Nugget Rush flip it? appeared first on Invezz