Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance bitcoin exchange, talked about investing in the failed Terra project, revealing the amount the company holds in its UST stablecoin.

2/ Binance received 15,000,000 LUNA ($1.6 billion at peak value, not much at the moment) as part of the original investment ($3 million). 560x peak spin. It is still standing at the address we bought it at 👇. It has never been moved or sold.

Address:https://t.co/6HwTu6CCuB

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) 16 May 2022

According to him, in 2018, Binance invested $3 million in Terra, receiving 15 million LUNA. Zhao said the assets have not been moved or sold since then.

When the coin hit high prices, the value of the initial investment increased 560 times ($1.6 billion). The Binance chairman added that after the collapse of UST and LUNA, these investments were worth “somewhat”.

On May 8, the UST lost its peg against the US dollar. This happened against the background of the exit of assets from the Anchor protocol as the rate of return on deposits dropped to 17.87%.

On May 10, the asset’s quotes fell below $0.62. The decline continued on May 11, after which the LUNA coin used to mint the algorithmic stablecoin fell to $0.3.

On May 16, the Luna Foundation Guard organization reported that it spent nearly $3 billion in reserve funds to bail out the UST. After publication, stablecoin prices dropped from ~$0.14 to close to $0.09.

The price of LUNA dropped to $0.0018 (CoinGecko). Binance’s $3 million investment turned into about $2,700.

Zhao also said that the exchange earned about 12 million UST from staking. Assets at current price just over $1 million.

The Terra team said it hopes to “use the remaining assets to compensate UST users, primarily low value holders.”

“To set an example of protecting users, Binance will not hold on to this and will ask the project team to compensate retail investors first. We are the last, if any,” said Zhao.

According to the Binance founder, this decision was taken unanimously by the exchange team after a five-minute discussion.

4/ Now the important part.

As an example of PROTECTING USERS, Binance will drop it and ask the Terra project team to reimburse retail users first, Binance last.

Binance (after 5 minutes of discussion) fully supports this offer. 👇https://t.co/QnMx8aZ09A

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) 16 May 2022

The idea of ​​compensation to small UST holders, previously expressed by an investor under the pseudonym PersianCapital, was supported by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.