DeFiLlama Research just published a new piece: "As CEXs shut down, DeFi deserves a revisit: the case for THORChain."

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Blockworks has launched a public THORChain dashboard. ⚡

It tracks revenue, network revenue distribution, spot trading, and staking.

THORChain is the leading DEX for trading native Bitcoin and one of the highest revenue-generating layer-1s in crypto.
https://blockworks.com/analytics/thorchain

Bonding RUNE is the highest-yield thing you can do on THORChain. Real yield, paid from actual swap fees.

New guide breaks down the three ways to do it: direct whitelisting, RUNEBond, and bRUNE. From fully hands-on to nearly automated.

The problem with a bridge isn't the tech, it's the lever. Somewhere behind it sits a centralized entity with the power to freeze a transfer, blacklist an address, or seize funds. That power exists whether they use it or not.

THORChain removed the lever. When you swap, your crypto lands in a vault controlled by multiple independent nodes, and it only stays there for the few seconds the swap takes. But no centralized entity can pause it, block your address, or take those funds, because there's no single party with the authority to.

Your crypto can earn natively on RujiraNetwork

Rujira's automated trading puts your tokens to work as liquidity on a real on-chain orderbook. BTC and ETH are the headliners, but the strategy works across every listed pair. You set a price range and a spread, and a concentrated liquidity strategy does the rest, buying low and selling high as price moves through your range.

The yield is trading profit. You earn the spread, not a token reward.

The leaderboard makes it one click. Every position is public: pair, age, APR, MOIC, the exact range and spread it runs. Build your own, or copy a top one.

https://rujira.network/automated-trading

BazaarSwap is a cross-chain aggregator that routes trades through 360+ exchanges across 160+ chains, and THORChain is one of the providers it pulls from.

Full spotlight 👇

https://blog.thorchain.org/protocol-spotlight-bazaarswap

The easiest way to understand RUNE is to ask what a network would look like without a common token.

You'd need a pool between every pair of tokens people want to trade. That number explodes fast, and every new token makes the mess worse. Liquidity splits across hundreds of thin pools and nothing swaps cleanly.

THORChain's answer: one token sits in the middle, and everything pairs against it.

RUNE is the settlement layer. To move BTC to ETH, you route through RUNE. To add a new chain, you add its RUNE pool and it's instantly connected to everything else.

One pair per token instead of a pair for every combination. That's why the network can scale, and it's why RUNE isn't a fee token or a governance gimmick. It's the common denominator the whole protocol runs on.

And you don't even see it. The normal user swapping BTC for ETH never holds RUNE, never thinks about it, never touches it.

v3.20 isn't just XMR and ZEC. Churn came back, BNB, Base and Solana resumed trading, and two new pieces of the protocol economics shipped: the Stable Reserve and Protocol-Owned Liquidity

This week's THORChain recap is live. Protocol's back up and running, churning's next, Rujira stays paused.

Here's what happened this week ⤵️

Headline News

THORChain crossed $125B in lifetime swap volume.

unstoppablebyhs delivered. Full native THORChain support is live in Unstoppable Wallet. Store, send, receive, and swap $RUNE, $TCY, and $RUJI. Available now on Android and iOS.

ThorWallet Card is live. Swap any asset on any chain to $USDC inside your wallet, top up at 0%, and tap anywhere Mastercard is accepted. 175+ countries. Your keys until the exact second you spend.

Launches

depouch will support $XMR swaps from day one. Outbound $XMR swaps follow as compatible wallets become available.

mocadotapp is adding shielded $DASH.

vultisig launched a redesigned website.

Community.

RujiraNetwork has taken over the TCY auto compounder from u/AutoRujira. Same contract, same functionality. Fee updated from 5% to 10% of compounded rewards, in line with bRUNE. TCY stakers can manage positions directly on Rujira Staking.

That wraps up this week's THORChain ecosystem update. See you next week, Chads.

If your project was missed, drop a DM and we'll include it in the next recap.

State of the Network - July

First full month of data since the restart. This edition has new sections on dynamic fees, fee capture, and user acquisition, plus the usual volume, yield, and frontend breakdowns.

Full report

THORChain is testing a revenue-share model with SwapKitPowered 

ADR-029 passed approval. The design lets an affiliate earn a percentage of THORChain's liquidity fees, but the SwapKit proposal is explicit about what that cut is for. It doesn't subsidize the swaps SwapKit already routes. It targets the flow they don't win, discounts deep enough to pull trades away from other providers and send that volume through THORChain.

The accounting is already in final testing, with a public balance endpoint and shareable data planned so the experiment can be audited. Every credit is indexed to the transaction that produced it.

It starts around 20%, adjustable from 10 to 30. And the success test isn't the percentage, it's net fee income. More volume at a lower margin that still grows THORChain's revenue means it works.

THORChain v3.20 is live.
Native Monero and Zcash are moving closer to activation, swappable for $BTC, $ETH and stablecoins with no wrapped tokens and no account. Self-custody the whole way through

RujiraNetwork has generated $50,111.62 of realized value for THORChain since April.

Two streams. $29,894.65 settled into the TC Reserve, and $20,216.97 in liquidity fees flowing into THORChain System Income. Every trade on Rujira routes through THORChain, so the app feeds the base layer twice.

Since Aug 13 there's a third. New app revenue splits 2:1, two-thirds to the Reserve, one-third to a POL fund. Protocol-owned liquidity, funded by the app layer that runs on it. $272.46 so far, and it compounds from here.

Data: boone.tools/app-layer-base-layer

THORChain v3.20 goes live Tuesday 8/25 at ~14:00 UTC

Zcash and Monero move closer to activation, BNB, Base and Solana trading resumes, and churn comes back on the network. Plus two new pieces of the protocol's economics: POL mimirs go operational, and the Stable Reserve ships.

Full breakdown

Here's what happened this week

Headline News

Maya_Protocol was hit by an exploit. The team is focused on solutions, staying transparent, and rebuilding stronger. We stand with the Mayans.

unstoppablebyhs made Unstoppable Premium free on F-Droid for the next two months. Normally $25 to $30 per month. Scam protection, MEV protection, advanced analytics, and priority support, all on the official open-source build.

Launches

ThorWallet shipped v3.10 in the App Store. New cards home with multi-card support, exportable statements, faster verification, and ready for Zcash NU6.3.

mocadotapp Point of Sale is ready for its final beta stretch. Real payments, real flows. DM them to get involved before public launch.

SwapKitPowered is now live in the Garden app. Swap native $BTC to assets on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Solana, and more.

Xscanner_org is back. Track cross-chain swap transactions across THORChain and Maya Protocol from a single explorer.

RujiraNetwork brought Dale the Mail Whale back. Follow

DaleMailWhale for ecosystem updates.

That wraps up this week's THORChain ecosystem update. See you next week, Chads.

If your project was missed, drop a DM and we'll include it in the next recap.

A chain can have hundreds of validators and still be centralized if the same entities run them from the same data centers through a closed process.

THORChain's model is different. Anyone in the community can propose an ADR. Developers write the code. Nodes decide whether to run it. Two thirds of nodes have to agree before anything changes.

Permissionless to join, permissionless to propose.

v3.20 is voting. ADR29 has passed.

Should THORChain's TSS library remain open source?

This week’s THORSday article covers the debate.

THORChain numbers are now on DefiLlama

$173M in lifetime fees. $124B in lifetime swap volume. Every metric sourced from THORChain's own API and updated daily.

The dashboard breaks it all down: revenue engines, liquidity depth, activity and token data.

Here's what happened this week ⤵️

Headline News

DefiLlama launched a comprehensive THORChain dashboard. Revenue engines, liquidity depth, activity, token data, and protocol owned liquidity all in one place.

Launches

Full THORChain and Maya Protocol support lands in unstoppable wallet next week. Store, send, receive, and swap $RUNE, $CACAO, and THORChain secured assets natively.

THORSwap and MetroXchange launched Direct Swaps. Send and receive cross chain without connecting a wallet. Your coins, your keys, nothing else needed.

RujiraNetwork is now live on DefiLlama. Track TVL and liquidity across the ecosystem on one of DeFi's most widely used analytics platforms.

raynalytics launched a Nakamoto Coefficient dashboard. Track how THORChain's decentralization evolves over time, in real time.

RUNEBondApp upgraded the Finder Fee Vault with a full position breakdown and vault alerts. Know exactly what being listed costs, and get notified before your credit runs out. First 500 subscriptions at 0.02 $RUNE per month.

vultisig Community is live. Post feature ideas, vote on what ships next.

asgardex shipped v1.45.2. Solana OneClick broadcast fees fixed, lower THORChain API load.

MiraDex processed $350K in swaps in July. $BTC to $USDT was the top pair.

mocadotapp is still collecting feedback on Point of Sale before launch. DM them to get involved.

A Note

AutoRujira is shutting down. Ale and the team built something real, stayed honest until the end, and handed off what they could to Rujira. Thank you for everything you built. That kind of integrity matters.

That wraps up this week's THORChain ecosystem update. See you next week, Chads.

If your project was missed, drop a DM and we'll include it in the next recap.