A cryptocurrency whose cost is supposed to be pegged to the dollar has misplaced half of its price this week, sparking panic in the already febrile international of crypto property.

Terra UST, which is supposed to track at kind of $1 per coin, at one level changed into buying and selling at 30 cents on Wednesday earlier than getting better to round 50 cents, in step with the CoinGecko website.

So-called stablecoins like terra are meant to be less volatile than cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or Ethereum.

Their peg to traditional currencies is meant to offer investors more certainty and security.

But terra and several other stablecoins are not backed by any revenue streams, instead of relying on algorithms to rapidly move funds between cryptocurrencies as they rise and fall in value.

Luna Foundation Guard, which backs terra, said on Monday it had deployed the equivalent of $1.5 billion in cryptocurrencies to stabilize the coin.

The coin’s founder Do Kwon said on Twitter on Tuesday he was about to present a recovery plan.

But terra persisted to crash, perhaps stuck up in a broader promote-off of cryptocurrencies that noticed bitcoin plunge this week to its lowest price since remaining July.

US Treasure Secretary Janet Yellen advised a Senate committee on Tuesday that the terra episode illustrates “that there are dangers to monetary balance and we want a framework it really is appropriate”.

Anto Paroian of ARK36 hedge fund, which specializes in crypto assets, said regulation in the long term would be a “net positive for the crypto space”.

“But if stablecoin issuers get regulated as strictly as banks, it could suffocate one of the most innovative, thriving, and important sectors of the crypto market,” he added.