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Jonathan Chew · · 5 min read

Chai: the partner that escaped Terra’s collapse

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For once, my procrastination saved me. Being too lazy to get into Luna and UST – the native token and stablecoin of Terraform Labs, respectively – meant that I was able to avoid the collapse of the Terra ecosystem over the last few days.

Even then, however, I didn’t escape completely unscathed as the effects of the crash were felt throughout the entire crypto sector, causing a bloodbath in the market. If my paltry crypto portfolio were a person, it’d probably look like it just came out on the losing end of a bar fight.

That said, one crypto company seems to have escaped the worst effects of recent events.

Chai Corporation, which was established by Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin, seems to still have a handle on things despite being formerly associated with the crypto ecosystem. In today’s story, we explore how Chai is holding up.

Today we look at:

  • How Chai Corporation is doing following the fall of Terra.
  • A climate tech firm bagging US$7.4 million
  • Other newsy highlights such as Tencent’s slowest revenue growth since 2004 and a new fund for cybersecurity startups.

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Spilling the tea on Chai

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Some people might say that breakups are just the beginning to becoming a better person. In Chai Corporation’s case, the South Korea-based payments service company can definitively say that cutting loose from Terra was a life-saver. Let’s take a look at how that’s working out for the company.

  • Pegging concerns: Chai originally used TerraKRW (or KRT), an algorithmic stablecoin that’s pegged to the Korean won. KRT was part of Chai’s back end, which the company says helped lower transaction speeds and cut costs.
    Following in its US counterpart’s footsteps, KRT also lost its peg last week after the US$285 million sell-off of UST.
  • It’s not you, it’s me: On May 13, Chai posted a message on its homepage that it had disconnected its KRT service in 2020, long before the currency depegged. It also emphasized that the two entities operate separately and that no services provided by the firm are linked to Terra.

  • Still growing: As of May 13, Chai was still advertising in Singapore for a local national to fill the role of associate legal counsel, along with other job postings seeking a finance manager and regional marketing manager.
    The company is also seeking front-end, back-end, DevOps, and iOS engineers for its Seoul office.


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TIA Writer

Jonathan Chew

Has a strange liking for grabbing tiny plastic things on wooden walls