South Korean eCommerce Startup Raises $32 Million to Create Crypto Stablecoin

South Korea e-commerce marketplace Ticket Monster (TMON) revealed it had closed a $32 million funding round for its new stablecoin Terra in a press release Wednesday, August 29.

TMON, which boasts a considerable $4 billion in total sales, is seeking to create an in-house cryptocurrency to compliment its existing token, Luna, which acts as collateral on its blockchainplatform.

Contributing to the round are some of the cryptocurrency industry’s best-known names, including Binance Labs, OKEx and Huobi Capital, as well as funds including Polychain Capital.

“From experience, I know that faster, more secure transactions at a fraction of today’s fees could be a game-changer for many eCommerce platforms,” Terra co-founder Daniel Shin commented, describing the token’s potential as “immense”:

“We foresee [Terra] being used for all types and forms of financial products like loans and insurance.”

Stablecoins are currently gaining popularity across various sectors of the global economy. Even banks, the first of which being Lichtenstein’s Union Bank earlier this month, have opted to issue their own token, which is usually tied to a fiat currency.

The TMON move marks a further conspicuous investment for Binance meanwhile, the exchangegiant’s investment arm having signalled plans to create a huge $1 billion fund in June.

Explaining the impetus behind its contribution, Binance Labs head Ella Zhang highlighted TMON’s existing partner network of companies already waiting to use the token.

“While we see many stablecoins coming out, Terra’s journey is especially meaningful as they are designing one of the few price-stable protocols with existing, working, and strong go-to-market strategy and usage,” she said.

Shin forecast beta testing of theTerra payment system to begin in Q4.