The values of major cryptocurrencies have been sliding for months, but the crash entered a new phase last week. TerraUSD (or UST) was the third largest stablecoin on the crypto market, while Luna was the fourth most valuable cryptocurrency by market valuation. But now both are virtually worthless — and a lot of people have lost a lot of money.
Posting on the r/terraluna subreddit, one user wrote, “I lost all my life savings.” Another said the same, declaring “I’m out of crypto.” Others posted about the tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars they’d lost, and how it would mean they wouldn’t be able to buy a house — or could lose their homes altogether. Eventually, moderators restricted new posts and pinned international suicide hotlines to the top of the page as people with huge losses said they saw it as their only way out.
After a year of exuberance, the crypto winter is here, and it’s not clear there will ever be a spring. The promises that coin values would go “to the moon” have given way to a rapid decline, while the slang term “wagmi” — “we’re all going to make it” — seems like a cruel joke. Enthusiasts used to chide critics by telling them to “stay poor,” but now that’s the situation of many of the people who put their money into the digital assets based on the lies of those with much less to lose.
