Dev & Ops Fund Q3 2026

2026-10-28 — 5 min read

Quarterly Report

THORChain Dev & Ops Fund Report Q3 2026 cover

This report covers three months of Dev & Ops Fund spending, income, and protocol performance, from July to September 2026. It is prepared by the THORChain Coordination Group. Live operations status is published at devops.thorchain.org .

This article is based on the Coordination Group's Q3 report. The full report, with its charts, is available online.

Q3 at a glance	Value
Period	July to September 2026
Dev & Ops Fund spend	USD 684,238
Self-funded	USD 154,828
Monthly spend	USD 260k to 203k

Where the Money Went

Category	July 2026	August 2026	September 2026	Total	% of total
Development	63,969	95,910	45,410	205,289	24.7%
Operations - Security	55,000	50,000	50,000	155,000	18.8%
Infrastructure - RPC*	26,000	10,000	42,000	78,000	9.5%
Operations - STO (Swap Frontend)	20,000	20,000	20,000	60,000	7.3%
Infrastructure - Explorers*	20,000	20,000	20,000	60,000	7.3%
Development - Audit	40,000	-	-	40,000	4.9%
Operations - Biz Dev	14,637	11,666	11,666	37,969	4.6%
Infrastructure - Analytics	8,400	8,400	8,400	25,200	3.1%
Operations - Admin	3,000	3,000	3,000	9,000	1.1%
Operations - Mod & Support	2,600	1,000	1,800	5,400	0.7%
Operations - Legal (IP name)	5,000	-	-	5,000	0.6%
Operations - Documentation	1,380	1,000	1,000	3,380	0.4%
Total - Dev & Ops Fund	259,986	220,976	203,276	684,238	83.0%
Dev & Ops Fund income	44,124	66,262	44,442	154,828	22.6%
Paid by Treasury - Dev & Ops Fund shortfall	215,862	154,714	158,834	529,410	77.4%
One-off - ThorFi legal counsel (outside the Dev & Ops Fund)	140,000	-	-	140,000	17.0%
Grand total - Dev & Ops Fund + one-off	399,986	220,976	203,276	824,238	100.0%

* Partially paid in sponsored nodes, not cash-flow relevant. All figures in USD. Includes unpaid and open invoices. The ThorFi legal counsel expense was funded by the Treasury, outside the Dev & Ops Fund. Income and Treasury shares are percentages of Dev & Ops Fund spend.

A Lean Operating Model

Monthly Dev & Ops Fund spend fell 22%, from USD 260k in July to USD 203k in September, with no reduction in scope. The Coordination Group continues to operate in a lean and efficient model.

Every line item is budgeted, invoiced, and reported. Nothing recurring runs without an owner and a cap.

Funding the Shortfall

Dev & Ops Fund income was USD 154,828 in Q3, 22.6% of spend, from 5% of protocol revenue. The Treasury covered the remaining USD 529,410, or 77.4% of spend.

Month	Income	Spend	Covered by income
July	44,124	259,986	17.0%
August	66,262	220,976	30.0%
September	44,442	203,276	21.9%
Q3	154,828	684,238	22.6%

Treasury Action on Revenue

The Treasury has taken steps to increase its own revenue and reduce reliance on asset sales.

Staking available assets, such as TCY, to generate yield on holdings that would otherwise sit idle.
Shortfall funding continues from the Treasury while protocol income is grown.
The aim remains for the Dev & Ops Fund to carry more of its own cost each quarter.

Dev & Ops Fund income is 5% of protocol revenue. Spend includes roughly USD 30k per month settled in sponsored nodes.

What Happened in Q3

Lean operating model maintained. Monthly spend fell from USD 260k to USD 203k across the quarter, with no reduction in scope.
Development remains the largest line. USD 205k, 24.7% of spend. Contributors are scoped, budgeted, and accountable.
Security audit funded. A USD 40k audit was completed in July. Security operations held steady at USD 50k to 55k per month.
Treasury revenue action. Available assets such as TCY are now staked to generate yield for the Treasury.

Q3 Protocol Performance

Metric	Q3 2026	Context
Swap volume	USD 2.41B	USD 28.0M per day, up from 22.7M per day in Q2
Liquidity fees	USD 2.64M	Up 18% per day against Q2
Partner-routed volume	USD 512M	Up 34% from Q2, 40 new affiliate tags on the network
Interfaces routing 1M+	16 to 20	119 partner conversations tracked, 20 in advanced talks

Partner channel	Q3 volume	vs Q2	Note
THORChain Swap	USD 258.0M	+95%	Houdini Swap private-swap option live September 23
SwapKit	USD 94.5M	+103%	Revenue share live October 14 (ADR-029)
Two wallet integrators	USD 45.1M	+152%
Q4 to date (October 1 to 14)	USD 592M	42.3M per day	Six new partner conversations

Source: THORChain BD report, Q3 2026. Figures cover July 1 to September 24. September 25 to 30 is excluded (exploit-linked flows, see the September State of the Network). The Q2 baseline is low due to the post-exploit halt.

What THORChain Delivered in Q3

Native Zcash Shipped

ZEC integration was built and tested through Q3 (v3.16 to v3.20). The pool went live on October 2 and native swaps on October 8. No wrapped tokens.

Rev Share Launched (ADR-029)

Interfaces earn from THORChain's fee instead of stacking their own. Early result: 3.8x profit and 2000x volume on the routed flow. The SwapKit deal went live on October 14.

RUNE Bond Grew

Bond demand rose through the quarter and the validator set expanded. Bonded RUNE continued to climb into October.

Dynamic Fee Pilot (ADR-026)

THORChain captured about 34% of ShapeShift's routed volume in July. Edge Wallet and Symbiosis joined the pilot on September 26.

Monero and Houdini

The XMR integration was audited (USD 40k, July) and released alongside Zcash. Houdini Swap adds a private-swap option and a treasury fee share.

AI Agent Route

A public MCP server gives AI agents 126 tools, including swap quotes. 30 agent platforms have been mapped, and outreach to the first five is under way.

DevOps Dashboard Live

What THORChain builds is now public and live at devops.thorchain.org. What it costs is reported in full every quarter in this report.

Upgrade pipeline: every release, from development and stagenet testing to the node vote and the upgrade height.
Chain health: block time, validator set, swap and outbound queues, and halts per chain.
50 tracked tasks: progress, priority, and step-by-step updates, from user recovery to daemon updates.
Live updates: incidents and fixes posted as they happen.

DEVOPS DASHBOARD SCREENSHOT — https://devops.thorchain.org/

Suggestion for Nodes

The Coordination Group suggests raising the Dev & Ops Fund allocation from 5% to 8 to 10% of protocol revenue.

	Today (5%)	Proposed (8 to 10%)
Dev & Ops Fund income per quarter, at Q3 actual revenue	USD 155k	USD 248k to 310k
Self-funded share	22.6%	36% to 45%
Treasury draw per month	USD 176k	USD 125k to 146k

Why Now

Q3 spend is already at its lowest monthly level since handover, USD 203k in September.
The fund paid for ZEC, XMR, rev share, and dynamic fees, the work that is now growing protocol income.
At 5%, the Treasury still carries 77% of the cost of running the protocol.

Our Suggestion

Set the allocation at 8 to 10% and hold it for six months, then revisit against Q4 and Q1 actuals. The Treasury continues to fund the remaining shortfall and is staking available assets such as TCY to grow its own revenue. The aim remains for the Dev & Ops Fund to carry more of its own cost each quarter.

Release progress, stagenet test results, chain health, and open operational tasks are published live at devops.thorchain.org. Node operators can withhold Dev & Ops Fund disbursement by vote at any time.