Is UNA Hope for LUNA and UST Victims' Financial Recovery?

What do a venture capitalist, a tokenomics expert, a memecoin legend, an eCommerce pioneer and a top-tier CTO have in common?

It may sound like the setup to a punchline, but the reality is far more serious. This diverse group of innovators has united with a shared mission: to build a groundbreaking protocol aimed at reviving and recapitalizing communities devastated by the collapse of projects like Luna and UST.

For those who lost everything due to market upheavals or the manipulations of bad actors in the crypto world, hope is on the horizon. A second chance at financial recovery – and perhaps even freedom – is within reach.

And the cost for these victims to participate? Absolutely nothing.

Enter UNA, a new protocol designed to offer a lifeline of hope to the victims of LUNA/UST and other major crypto crashes.

The collapse of LUNA and UST: A black swan event

The crash of LUNA and UST in May 2022 is a tragic chapter in crypto history. Once hailed as the cornerstone of decentralized finance, Terraform Labs' $LUNA and its stablecoin $UST spiraled into disaster when UST depegged from the US dollar.

Millions of wallets and billions in value vanished seemingly overnight, leaving behind a trail of financial ruin and broken trust in the crypto space. For many, this event wasn’t just about lost funds. It became a personal tragedy, with life savings having disappeared into the void. Others saw their entire projects collapse before their eyes.

This tragedy raised one crucial question for Enigma, the founder of EnigmaFund Venture Capital: Where did all of that value go, and what if we could bring it back?

UNA: A second chance at financial recovery

UNA seeks to bring a fresh start to victims of crypto collapses like LUNA/UST. The protocol’s primary mission is simple: recapitalize and resurrect massive, disenfranchised communities using innovative tokenomics, game theory and no-cost participation.

What sets UNA apart is its commitment to making recovery accessible to each and every individual who has lost funds. For example, anyone who held LUNA or UST on May 6-7, 2022 – the days of the depeg – has access to 50% of the entire $UNA supply, which is available to claim for free.

No entry fee, no hidden costs. Just a chance to recover part of what was lost.

At the helm of UNA is EnigmaFund (aka Enigma), a venture capitalist with deep experience in blockchain and Web3 ventures. As the founder of EnigmaFund Venture Capital and Excelsior, EnigmaFund's vision has been pivotal in crafting UNA’s strategy to make communities devastated by projects like Luna and UST whole again.

Joining him is Austin Seiberlich, a leading tokenomist known for his work with projects such as Superchain, KINO and Privasea. Austin's innovative approach to tokenomics and game theory underpins UNA’s deflationary economy, designed to drive long-term sustainability for the community.

On the technical side, Larron Armstead, the former CTO and founder of SupraOracles, brings a wealth of experience in blockchain architecture, while John Bui, a strategic blockchain advisor for major corporations like TV Asahi, adds depth to the team's strategic initiatives.

With its mix of financial, technical and strategic expertise, the team is building a protocol that will not only aim to transform how collapsed crypto communities can recover, but to see them thrive.

Zero-risk, zero-cost: How UNA works

To ensure a sustainable and deflationary token economy, UNA’s team has developed an innovative approach to claiming and vesting tokens. As previously noted, 50% of the entire $UNA supply will be available for free to anyone who held $LUNA or $UST during the depeg on May 6-7, 2022.

While this may seem like a generous offer, the risk is clear: Without careful planning, many would sell their tokens immediately upon receiving them, potentially devaluing the token from the start.

In order to counter this, Enigma and Austin designed a sophisticated system of incentives and deflationary mechanics, known as the Full Reward Incentive (FRI-Cook). Claimants will need to vest their tokens over an 18-month period. Those who withdraw their tokens early will forfeit the unvested portion, which will then undergo several deflationary measures:

• 50% will be returned to long-term treasury and liquidity.
• 40% will be permanently burned, reducing the overall supply.
• 10% will be redistributed to unclaimed tokens and staked $UNA holders.

These mechanics, combined with other nuanced token design features, create a self-sustaining deflationary system that incentivizes long-term participation. The team has meticulously modeled this approach using advanced simulations and game theory, ensuring long-term value and stability for $UNA.

Reaching the victims: UNA's target audience

José Brizida, UNA’s head of marketing, is a respected figure in the advertising industry, known for leading major campaigns for top global brands. Reflecting on UNA's strategy, he shares, “We have been building audiences for several months, and co-designing with providers like Taboola in order to reach the victims of this tragic collapse. It’s been an exciting challenge to take head on, especially in an exceptionally noisy attention-driven economy.”

A key challenge UNA faces is reconnecting with the millions of people affected by the LUNA/UST collapse. To tackle this, UNA is executing a multi-pronged outreach strategy targeting:

• General holders, stakers and validators involved in the LUNA/UST ecosystem
• Projects that were building on LUNA at the time of the depeg
• Centralized exchanges (CEXs) like Binance that held LUNA/UST in treasury or liquidity
• Venture funds
• KOLs (key opinion leaders) that had significant stakes in LUNA/UST. These included @Crypto_Banter aka Ran Nuer who lost $100 million USD in $LUNA, or @KSI who is famously known for suffering a $3 million loss, and many others including @CarlTheMoon and @CryptoWizardd.

UNA’s marketing team has already compiled a list of over 2 million potential claimants by scraping social media and aggregating email lists of users connected to LUNA/UST.

The team is also collaborating with CEXs and key opinion leaders to get the word out: “We are looking to them to help us, themselves and their users. It’s a bipartisan outcome with no real cost and only upside,” says founder Enigma.

“The CEXs get massive free claims for their LUNA and UST they once held in their treasury, liquidity and user accounts. All we need is help creating awareness, and to get us a snapshot of users’ holdings on the days of the depeg. There would be no directly identifiable information shared, and it’s something they have done before in cases where they helped users swap old tokens for new ones on-chain.”

Enigma added that, “It’s easy for CEXs to work with us. We would have zero knowledge of who the user is, just enough to calculate what they are owed. We’re calling on folks like Binance, OKX, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, Gate, etc. to step up and help us, help them and help you.”

The goal is simple: to inform every potential victim of the opportunity to claim their tokens through their participation in the project at zero cost, and zero risk.

Building for the future: UNA’s ambitious vision

UNA isn’t just a one-off recovery project. Beyond the immediate focus on LUNA and UST, the team plans to build an ecosystem designed to revive other failed communities. Some examples include BitConnect, OneCoin, SafeMoon and SquidGames.

As a governance and launchpad token, gUNA will play a critical role in this expansion. Holders of $UNA who stake their tokens or wait longer to claim will earn more gUNA, which will enable them to participate in future recovery initiatives.

In essence, UNA is developing an entire platform capable of revitalizing entire communities that were decimated in previous crypto crashes.

The goal? To bring millions of users back into the DeFi economy and restore trust in a space that has seen its fair share of dark days.

A personal mission

For Enigma, this mission isn’t just professional – it’s deeply personal. Like many others, he had a significant portion of his capital locked in LUNA and UST. His family was hit hard during the pandemic, and when the LUNA crash happened, it compounded an already difficult situation.

Instead of focusing solely on his own losses, Enigma sought a way to help the broader community, drawing inspiration from advice to "be of service to others" during tough times.

This philosophy lies at the heart of UNA’s mission – to not only provide financial recovery but also to restore hope and community to those who believed in decentralized finance.

Reclaim your future with UNA

The time for LUNA and UST victims to act is now. If you held $LUNA or $UST on May 6-7, 2022, you are entitled to claim your free $UNA tokens at zero cost and zero risk.

Visit the project’s website and provide your email in order to be notified when the claim-checking portal goes live.