Terra Hits Refresh, Binance Hits Pause — $LUNA Leaps 15% Anyway 🚀

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced on Monday it will support the upcoming Terra ($LUNA) network v2.21.0 upgrade, triggering a 15% surge in the token's price and extending its weekly gains to nearly 30%. The upgrade is scheduled to occur today, September 21, at 16:00 UTC at block height 22,942,000, according to the project's upgrade countdown data.

The v2.21.0 upgrade is designed to strengthen network security, stability, and interoperability across the infrastructure that underpins transactions and applications on Terra. "No action is required from users. A brief network pause may occur while validators upgrade," the Terra Phoenix team said in a statement.

Binance said it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals of tokens on the Terra network to accommodate the upgrade while ensuring the best experience for users. The exchange confirmed that trading on the network will not be impacted and that Binance will handle all technical requirements on behalf of its customers. $LUNA trading on Binance will continue as normal throughout the upgrade process.

The announcement comes amid heightened attention on the Terra ecosystem following its 2022 collapse and subsequent community-led relaunch efforts under the Terra Phoenix banner. Network upgrades since then have focused on rebuilding validator infrastructure and on-chain functionality.

No additional details on validator participation rates or post-upgrade performance benchmarks were disclosed by either Binance or the Terra Phoenix team at the time of publication.