<p>Crypto exchange Binance has suspended withdrawals of LUNA and UST tokens as the Terra-based stablecoin struggles to recover its peg to the US dollar.</p> <p>Binance announced the temporary suspensions <a href="https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/dc02bedd65be40f7b10022f26bc06879">in a blog post earlier</a> this morning, blaming “a high volume of pending withdrawal transactions” caused by network congestion.</p> <p>“Binance will reopen withdrawals for these tokens once we deem the network to be stable and the volume of pending withdrawals has reduced. We will not notify users in a further announcement,” the company added.</p> <p>The news comes amid a period of marked turbulence for Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin UST — the third largest stablecoin by total issuance behind USDT and USDC — which has fallen sharply against the dollar in the past few days. </p> <p>Significant efforts have been made to bolster UST. Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), a Singapore-based nonprofit that was formed to support both Terra-based stablecoins and the broader Terra ecosystem, announced a plan to lend $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and UST to third-party trading firms with the intention of providing support for UST’s peg on May 9.</p> <p>Yet the price of UST has continued to fall against that of USDT, the largest dollar-pegged stablecoin. Binance data had it down to a low of $0.6065 on Monday. It has recovered somewhat in the hours since to around $0.85 at press time.</p> <p>Meanwhile the price of LUNA, the Terra blockchain’s native asset which in normal market conditions can be burned in exchange for UST, has plummeted from around $62.50 just 24 hours ago to roughly $28.50 at press time, per data provided by CoinGecko.</p> <p>There is also considerable volatility in wider crypto markets for Terra and LFG to contend with. The price of bitcoin <a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/145933/crypto-market-tumult-continues-as-bitcoin-slips-below-30000">briefly slipped below $30,000</a> yesterday before recovering to around $31,500 at press time.</p>