LUNC network upgrades: every core release and what comes next

A LUNC network upgrade is a new version of terrad, the Terra Classic node software, that every validator switches to at the same block height after a governance vote. Since early 2023 the community has shipped a long chain of them, from the first maintenance release to v4.1.1, which went live at block 31,010,600 on 26 October 2026. None of them created a new coin or changed anyone’s balance.

The upgrades matter because Terra Classic was frozen on an old Cosmos stack after the May 2022 collapse. Each release closed part of that gap, fixed bugs or changed how the burn tax works. The network pulse in the hero shows the live block height and chain status, so you can watch an upgrade happen when the next one is scheduled.

What a Terra Classic network upgrade is

Terra Classic runs one chain, columbus-5, and all validators must agree on the rules. When those rules change, the change is shipped as a coordinated hard fork. A developer publishes a release on GitHub, someone submits a software-upgrade proposal with a plan name and a target block height, and stakers vote for seven days. If it passes, the chain stops at that height, operators swap in the new binary, and blocks resume once validators holding two-thirds of the stake are back online.

That is why people search for a “LUNC fork” and get confused. Every upgrade is a fork in the technical sense, but there is no split: the chain ID stays the same, balances carry over and no second token appears. The only real split in Terra’s history happened in May 2022, when Terra 2.0 started from a fresh genesis and the old chain was renamed Terra Classic. That story belongs to the Terra crash and the LUNC vs LUNA comparison.

A small trap for readers: plan names do not match version numbers. Core v1.1.0 used the plan name “v2”, and v4.1.1 used “v14_4”. When you read a proposal, look at the release tag, not the plan name.

Who builds and pays for upgrades

No company maintains Terra Classic. Terraform Labs stopped working on it after the crash and is winding down. The core code lives in the community-run classic-terra GitHub organization, and every release needs on-chain approval. Funding, when there is any, comes from the community pool by separate governance spend proposals.

In 2023 a community-funded group called the Joint L1 Task Force shipped the early releases, starting with v1.0.5, before it disbanded in early 2024. Later work came from independent contributors. A 2025 text proposal (12194) chose to jump directly to Cosmos SDK 0.53 with IBC v2, following a plan by a team known as OrbitLabs, and two community-pool spends in 2026 (12213 and 12220) paid for its phases. The 2026 upgrade proposals were written by a contributor with the handle fragwuerdig, and a small group of developers accounts for most commits. That is a thin bench for a chain of this size, which is one reason a security audit was debated so hotly.

Full Terra Classic upgrade history

The table lists every core upgrade on columbus-5 since the community took over. Heights come from the on-chain plan in each proposal and release dates from the GitHub releases page.

The parity upgrade (v3.0.1)

“Parity” is the word the community used for catching up with the rest of Cosmos. The name first appeared with v2.1.0 in mid-2023, which brought “wasm parity” through wasmd 0.30, but the upgrade most people mean is v3.0.1. Approved in proposal 12110 and activated at block 18,303,000 in June 2024, it moved Terra Classic to Cosmos SDK 0.47, CometBFT 0.37, wasmd 0.45 and ibc-go v7 in one step.

For ordinary holders, nothing visible changed. For developers, it meant modern tooling, current CosmWasm features and IBC that matched other chains. It also set up the later SDK 0.46 to 0.53 jump, because each step on an old fork is harder than the last. The v3.1.x releases that followed through October 2024 cleaned up issues found after the switch.

Same chain, new software

Every upgrade keeps the columbus-5 chain and its history. Validators swap the binary at an agreed height and the next block is produced under the new rules.

2025: tax features and unforked wasmd

The v3.3 to v3.6 releases mostly changed how transactions are taxed and how smart contracts run. v3.3.0, live at height 21,163,600 in December 2024, introduced the reverse-charge tax design in the x/tax module, replacing an earlier approach after proposal 12143. v3.5.0 in August 2025 added the tax-exemption whitelist feature, which lets governance exempt specific addresses from the burn tax.

v3.6.0 was the second phase of “unforking” wasmd, the CosmWasm module that Terra Classic had long run as a custom fork. It moved the chain to wasmd 0.46 and SDK 0.47.17 and went live on 20 October 2025. v3.6.1 followed: its vote ended on 15 December 2025 and the switch happened at block 26,479,000 on 18 December 2025. If you searched for the v3.6.1 upgrade date, that is it.

2026: v4.0 and Cosmos SDK 0.53

v4.0.0 is the largest release so far. Approved in proposal 12218, it activated at block 28,214,400 on 17 April 2026 and moved the chain to Cosmos SDK 0.53, wasmd 0.61 and ibc-go v10, which brings IBC v2, also called Eureka. v4.0.1 followed at block 28,486,158 on 6 May 2026. The upgrade vote overlapped with a sharp price rally that spring, and the press linked the two, though a large Binance fee burn on 1 May was cited as well.

Then came an emergency. A critical vulnerability in wasmd and wasmvm was being prepared for public disclosure by Cosmos Labs on 28 September 2026. Terra Classic shipped v4.0.1-patch.3 as a mandatory upgrade at block 30,544,730 on 24 September, four days ahead. A second fix, v4.0.2, did not break consensus, so validators rolled it out without a vote.

The latest release, v4.1.1, went live at block 31,010,600 on 26 October 2026 after proposal 12233. It fixes transactions that got stuck as “ghost” entries in the mempool, two panics in the tax module and problems with vesting accounts. It carries no state migration and no parameter changes. After that upgrade, the on-chain upgrade plan was empty when we checked, meaning nothing further was scheduled.

Holding LUNC through upgrades?

If you are still building a position, one route is to buy USDT with a card, move it to an exchange that lists LUNC, buy there and withdraw to a wallet you control.

Light the first spark

What an upgrade means for holders and exchanges

For a holder, a network upgrade is a non-event. Your LUNC stays at the same terra1 address, staked coins stay staked, and nothing needs to be claimed, migrated or swapped. Around the upgrade height, blocks stop for a while, usually until enough validators restart, so transactions sent at that moment wait or fail and have to be resent.

Exchanges have more work. Their nodes must switch software at the same height, so they commonly suspend LUNC deposits and withdrawals for the network around the upgrade and reopen them once their node is in sync. Trading on the order book often continues because it happens off-chain. If you plan to move coins, check the exchange’s announcement page first, and see our exchanges list for venues that support native Terra Classic transfers.

Validators carry the real risk. A node that misses the height stops with the old binary, starts missing blocks and can be jailed for downtime. That is one reason to choose an operator with a good track record, as our validator guide explains. Delegators can check their own position afterwards in the LUNC explorer.

IBC and bridges

Upgrades also reopened Terra Classic to other chains. IBC channels, frozen after the crash, were revived by a series of passed proposals from late 2022 onward: the Cosmos Hub client unfreeze in November 2022, then Osmosis, Juno, Crescent and Axelar, Kujira in April 2024 and Osmosis again in May 2024. Relayers that keep the channels running are funded by separate votes, most recently for the second half of 2026.

The other big piece is Hyperlane. Proposal 12200 in November 2025 approved a Hyperlane integration to connect LUNC and USTC with Ethereum, BNB Chain and Solana, with payment due only on delivery. In October 2026 governance took ownership of the Hyperlane contracts, migrated them to fix a signature bug and approved the delivery payment. Bridges are new and small, so our wrapped LUNC guide explains which contracts are genuine before you use one.

Height reached

Roadmap: what comes next for Terra Classic

There is no official LUNC roadmap, because no single team decides. The roadmap is whatever passes governance. Proposal 12234, passed on 26 October 2026, switched CosmWasm code uploads from “everybody” to “nobody”, so only governance can now approve new contract code. A follow-up, proposal 12236, asked to let the Juris Protocol and LuncSwap.fun teams upload code, which shows how an allow-list could work.

Several ideas have passed as signals but have no code yet: a USTC staking system without minting (12219), a “Market Module 2.0” without hyperminting (12188), and a forex and collateralized stablecoin module (12209). Two items were turned down in 2026: community-pool reserve ceilings (12224) and a SolidProof security audit with fixes (12228). A signal proposal is a statement of intent, not a delivery date, so treat headlines about upcoming features with care. For live proposals, use our governance page, and for the latest outcomes, LUNC news.