Terra (LUNA) has today emerged as one of the biggest winners in the cryptocurrency market, recording a strong double-digit price increase.
The price rally coincides with the sentencing of founder Do Kwon, which is set to take place today, as well as recent updates to the network that have sparked interest.
Why is the price of Terra (LUNA) token rising?
The altcoin began to rise at the end of the week. Sentiment strengthened on Monday after the v2,18,0 network update. Major exchanges like Bybit and Binance supported the update and temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals to ensure a smooth transition for users.
The update clearly boosted market sentiment. The token rose to a 7-month high yesterday. The upward trend continues today.
According to BeInCrypto Markets, the price of LUNA has risen by 55.58% in the last 24 hours. At the time of writing, the price of the altcoin was 0.232 dollars.
Especially today's rise has made LUNA the second largest gainer of the day on CoinGecko. Trading activity has also increased, with daily volume rising by 192.10% exceeding 700 million dollars.
Alongside the network update, a significant attention grabber is the expected verdict of Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon.
Kwon is set to appear before Judge Engelmayer in the Southern District Court of New York today. The Department of Justice is seeking a 12-year prison sentence.
However, an analyst noted that sentences may differ from the requests. Sam Bankman-Fried received 25 years, even though prosecutors sought 40–50 years. Alex Mashinsky received a 12-year sentence, despite the sought punishment being 20 years.
“I won't speculate on the exact time he will receive, but it would be naive to believe that he will be given more than 12 years, especially considering the time already served,” Camol wrote.
Nonetheless, Toknex has expressed concerns about LUNA's price rally and warned investors not to consider the rise as a sign of genuine recovery.
“This is not a return. This is not based on fundamentals. It is only about the trading pressure caused by the community. The real Terra ecosystem died in 2022. This new LUNA has no narrative and no lasting value. It will only see movement when traders want to speculate on volatility,” Toknex wrote.
As the sentencing approaches, community interest is focused on both LUNA and Terra Luna Classic (LUNC). Increased attention has propelled both tokens to the top of CoinGecko's trending list today.
BeInCrypto reported last week that the price of LUNC doubled when a reporter wore a vintage Terra Luna t-shirt at the Binance Blockchain Week event in Dubai.
As LUNA and LUNC come back into the spotlight, market participants disagree on whether the latest rise is a genuine recovery or yet another volatility-driven breakout.
