RUNE token spikes 11% as THORChain moves to mainnet after four years

RUNE, the native token of THORChain, was up more than 11% on Friday as the non-custodial decentralized exchange (DEX) made its move to mainnet.

After four years of development, THORChain has successfully launched its mainnet on seven different networks. THORChain enables decentralized exchanges and its users to move assets across blockchains seamlessly. At present there is a little more than $300 million in total value locked (TVL) on its network. 

RUNE was trading at $2.20 according to CoinGecko at the time of writing, having spiked as high as $2.25 on some exchanges earlier in the day. This represents an increase of 11.6% in the past 24 hours, up from $1.97. 

The DEX’s native token had fallen below $2 on June 13 as the broader crypto market was in tumult following crypto lending platform Celsius halting withdrawals. Today’s move sees it recover all of its losses from the past 11 days. 

The DEX is the only network currently capable of facilitating decentralized swaps between multiple networks without smart contract capabilities. According to THORChain it does this without compromising security of self-custody. 

Chad Barraford, technical lead at THORChain, spoke with The Block last week to discuss the move to mainnet. He stressed that, despite the peer-to-peer nature of crypto, most trades take place using a centralized exchange, so the long-term goal for THORChain is to support decentralized, peer-to-peer finance. 

THORChain solves this issue by running liquidity pools between chains. This means it doesn’t depend on wrapping, which is centrally controlled through smart contracts and exposes users to counter-party risk, according to some critics. 

The platform currently supports swaps across seven different networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin cash and RUNE, its native token. 

Still, the network has been the victim of several hacks. Notably, a hacker took $8 million from THORChain in July 2021 — which represented about 8% of the platform’s funds at the time. The move to mainnet may help enhance its security to avoid future attacks.

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