Tron modifies USDD stablecoin to avoid Terra-like disaster

livemint.com:

Tron, which debuted the USDD algorithmic stablecoin last month, is looking to avoid the trouble its fellow token TerraUSD ran into by boosting transparency and adding collateral.

Total USDD supply stands at about $668 million, the Tron DAO Reserve website and CoinGecko indicate. USDD had a collateralization ratio of 218% as of Monday morning Asia time, according to the TDR website, while a statement from the company on Sunday said a guaranteed minimum collateral ratio of 130% will be maintained.

TDR’s site shows reserves in Bitcoin, Tether and Tron’s TRX of $787 million, helping comprise a total of about $1.4 billion of assets backing USDD in circulation.

The moves come just a few weeks after the Luna and TerraUSD ecosystem collapsed, all but erasing a combined market value that had once exceeded $60 billion.

“This has been in the plan, but Terra/Luna definitely accelerated and prioritized this for our team," Tron founder Justin Sun said in a recent interview. “We want to have USDD to be overcollateralized, which I think will make market participants more comfortable about using us in the future."

Algorithmic stablecoins -- which are meant to stay at a constant price, often $1 -- have a troubled history. Efforts such as Neutrino and Basis have lost their dollar pegs, some in spectacular fashion, after price declines in the stabilizing token. 

Last month’s implosion of Luna and TerraUSD caused further devastation to the cryptocurrency complex, which has struggled as the Federal Reserve hikes rates and inflation remains high. Bitcoin and Ether, the two biggest tokens, are more than 50% lower than their November highs and many digital assets have down even further.

Sun said in an interview last month that the Terra/Luna