LUNA takes a seat at the top ten cryptos by market cap.

While Bitcoin and Ethereum are trading only slightly higher on the week (less than 1% in BTC and less than 4% in ETH), Terra (LUNA) has exploded in value as more value gets locked in the fastest-growing defi ecosystem.

This growth to the upside started at the end of September when Luna’s Columbus-5 improvement protocol was established. This upgrade made the young crypto deflationary by making it necessary to burn Luna tokens in order to mint TerraUSD. So as the TerraUSD stable coin grows in popularity, the amount of Luna tokens available is decreased.

Luna hit an all-time high today at $82 (according to Bitfinex) and has taken the number two seat in terms of TVL (total value locked). Terra currently has US$17.1 billion in TVL, up over 38% from a week earlier, giving them a 7.1% share of the entire decentralized finance sector. Over the weekend, it overtook BSC (Binance Smart Chain) to take the number two spot. The number one spot belongs to Ethereum at around $150 billion in TVL.

Luna has had an increase of over 50% in the last week. Luna has gained value every day during a week that held sideways to slightly higher action for most cryptos. Today marks the seventh consecutive higher close for this stable coin starling. Although we may see profit-taking in the days after hitting its new record high, the upward trajectory in the medium term is probable as traders rush to get into the next booming up and comer in the crypto space.