Terra Just Became the Latest Chain to Enable IBC
The interoperable Internet of Blockchains continues to expand as more and more Cosmos-enabled chains activate IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication). The latest major player to join the Cosmos IBC Gang is Terra, bringing its native LUNA token and popular stablecoin USDTerra (UST) with it — with other innovative protocols in its booming ecosystem to follow. That’s more than $18 billion of digital assets in liquidity joining the interconnected Cosmos network.
Terra’s inclusion takes the total number of IBC-enabled chains to 18, registering over 1.2 million IBC transactions per month. We couldn’t be more excited to see the Cosmos vision being realized and cross-chain DeFi really beginning to come alive. Let’s take a closer look at Terra and what this latest development means for Cosmos.
Terra’s Ecosystem Is Worth More Than $18 Billion
Terra is an application-specific blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK. Beyond LUNA and UST, Terra deploys a suite of fiat-pegged algorithmic stablecoins and innovative DeFi protocols in its fast-growing ecosystem, worth more than $18 billion combined. There is currently more than $9 billion in TVL in Terra’s various protocols and more than a $16 billion market cap for its native LUNA token. TerraUSD (UST) is now the fifth-largest stablecoin by market cap at an outstanding supply of nearly $2.8 billion.
Terra’s digital financial system of stable payments and open infrastructures is maintained by its range of stablecoins that provide users with instant transaction settlements and low fees and can be exchanged across multiple different blockchains for optimal interchangeability and fluidity. Terra will be focusing on enabling IBC with LUNA and UST first, but soon its quickly-growing DeFi protocols will follow — that includes Anchor Protocol, Mirror Protocol, and Pylons. Terra users can now connect cross-chain with Cosmos IBC-enabled chains that currently include Cosmos Hub (ATOM), IRISnet (IRIS), Osmosis (OSMO), and Crypto.com (CRO).
“For the past several years, we’ve been building Terra’s infrastructure foundations with Tendermint and Cosmos technology. Now, we’re thrilled to have activated IBC to make our range of stablecoins, protocols, and native LUNA token available for trading cross-chain,” said Do Kwon, CEO of Terra Money. “We share in the Cosmos vision of an interconnected multichain future and it has always been our plan to make our stablecoins available to every developer on every blockchain,” he added.
Enhancing Trading on Cosmos DEXs
Not only does Terra’s inclusion in the Internet of Blockchains advance our vision of seamless interoperability between different blockchain ecosystems but it also enables vast liquidity to flow freely between major chains. This will help to enhance the trading experience on Cosmos’ cross-chain decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and drive adoption of Cosmos’ DeFi protocols, such as Gravity DEX, Sifchain, Coinswap, and Osmosis.
“Terra’s community voting to activate IBC is testament to the utility of interoperability in unleashing cross-chain DeFi opportunities,” said Peng Zhong, CEO of Tendermint. “Terra’s IBC integration makes it easy for Terra-based assets, assets bridged onto Terra, and wallets like Terra Station, to interoperate with Cosmos’s vast rapidly growing network of blockchain applications.”
Welcome, Terra, to the Internet of Blockchains! We can’t wait to see what the future holds!
