THORChain – Cross-Chain Liquidity Network

TL;DR
While it’s likely that we’ll never see Thorchain live up to its 2021 hype, it’s worth remembering that the project is still one of the first protocols to introduce fully underwritten assets. As a cross-chain liquidity network, Thorchain has maintained relevance in the cryptocurrency space throughout the years due to how easy it is to use ThorSwap DEX. Adding a few upgrades this year like Streaming Swaps and Lending. ThorSwap is clawing its way back to becoming the trusted and dependable decentralized exchange first promised by the team at Nine Realms. But are these upgrades enough to push Thorchain forward and, more importantly, are dedicated RUNE and THOR holders happy enough to keep HODLing?

This is a question asked frequently about Thorchain and both its RUNE and THOR tokens. Largely due to the rocky road the network has had to travel since problems began arising in 2021 due to a Smart Contract exploit. What are Smart Contracts? That Summer Thorchain was attacked for $8 Million (twice) and $11 Million in a single week. Thorchain responded after the third and final exploit of that year by freezing the network. Three weeks later after teaming up with Halborn, a group of ethical hackers, the chain was resumed. The TVL of Thorchain jumped to a new high after this, topping out at $550 Million.

I wish that was the end of it for ThorChain users. But unfortunately, it was not. Later that year ThorChain announced it’s Token Offering for THOR, the equity token for ThorSwap. ThorChain released a small amount to the public on ThorSwap. However, this amount was front-run by ThorChain itself. Resulting in the protocol stealing all community tokens from the public auction. ThorChain claims this was by