Mirror Protocol

Mirror (MIR) is the native token of the Mirror Protocol, a defunct decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol for synthetic assets built on Terra. Mirror was built by Terraform Labs, the inventors of the failed algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST). The stablecoin collapsed in May 2022, wiping hundreds of billions from crypto’s total market cap. Investors fled from Mirror around the same time.

MIR launched at the start of December 2020, trading at $1.36. Its debut came just in time for the 2021 crypto boom. In April 2021, just as bitcoin hit its first all-time high for the year, MIR peaked at $12.90.

Like BTC, Mirror’s token fell before the middle of 2021. MIR reached lows of $3.54 at the end of May. But while BTC and many other tokens recovered in the autumn, MIR continued to fall.

Things got worse in May 2022: The entire Terra blockchain collapsed after UST fell from its $1 peg, taking its sister token, LUNA, with it. MIR fell to lows of 20 cents – a stunning collapse from its all-time high the previous April.

MIR launched with an initial supply of 54.9 million and a fixed, capped supply of more than 370 million tokens. Of the initial tokens, 16.66% were air-dropped to holders of Uniswap’s native token, UNI.

An equivalent amount was distributed to those who staked LUNA in Terraswap, a decentralized exchange built on Terra. The rest went to a community pool to build the network.

Mirror is a protocol for creating synthetic cryptocurrencies called Mirrored Assets. These tokens, also known as mAssets, are stablecoins pegged to the price of other assets, such as stocks and cryptocurrencies from other blockchains.

These assets operated across Terra, Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain. Investors could take long or short positions on stocks – bets that they increased or decreased.

MIR is the protocol’s governance token. Those that stake MIR can vote on the parameters that define the network. Stakers are also entitled to rewards from the protocol’s community fund.

Stakers also earn the fees used to “unback” a synthetic asset on Mirror. In reality, they were backed by both UST, itself already a largely unbacked asset, as proven by its grizzly demise in May 2022, as well as another cryptocurrency.

When Terra collapsed in May 2022, Terraform Labs paused the blockchain, temporarily locking Mirror users out of their funds. Mirror did not weather the storm, collapsing from $2.18 billion in total value locked in May 2021 to barely $150,000 a year later.

As of June 2022, Mirror remains on Terra Classic, the original Terra blockchain that Kwon forked to create Terra 2.0 – a blockchain that scrapped UST. Mirror has not relaunched on Terra 2.0, and its Discord chat remains “under lockdown.” A rescue plan to save the protocol was rejected by the Mirror community on May 26, 2022.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Terra founder Do Kwon over Mirror. The SEC served papers in September 2021 while Kwon was attending Messari's MainNet conference in Manhattan.

In May 2022, a Terra whistleblower called “FatManTerra” said that Mirror had been drained for $90 million in an exploit that had gone unnoticed since October 2021.