State of the Network - March 2026

Welcome to the March edition! We track security, liquidity, volume, fees, user activity, and supply across THORChain.

March delivered more of the same restraint. Volume came in at $801M, down again from February's $882M, as crypto markets spent the month attempting to find a base after a brutal February selloff. Retail sentiment stayed subdued, macro uncertainty persisted, and the kind of momentum that drives sustained trading volume simply wasn't there.

Volume and Fees

Large swaps

The standout swap of the month came on March 10th: 51.0 $BTC ($3.6M) converted to approximately 1,700 $ETH ($3.6M) in a single transaction, routed through THORSwap's frontend and powered by SwapKit.

The swap executed across 671 subswaps with a 0.2% LP fee, with THORSwap and SwapKit taking an additional 0.3% affiliate fee on top.

Clean execution at scale, exactly what the protocol is built for.

General volume

March daily volume clustered in the $15 to 50M range for most of the month, with one standout day: March 5th reaching $87.17M.

Total Volume in March: $801M total.

Swap Paths

BTC and ETH continue to dominate swap paths, with BTC to ETH and ETH to BTC remaining the two largest flows by volume.

BCH holds a more visible presence in the top paths this month, sitting above stablecoins. USDT, WBTC, and USDC round out the top routes, consistent with February.

SOL is not yet visible in the top 10, though with native SOL swaps resuming fully around March 9th, that picture should shift as liquidity deepens and more interfaces integrate the Solana pools.

Fees collected

System income came in at $848K for March, down from February's $1.19M, tracking the lower volume month.

The March 5th volume spike is clearly visible in the income chart, producing the highest single day of the month.

TCY and RUNE yield

Yields trended downward through March, reflecting the quieter volume environment.

• RUNE APR rolled off from its February peak near 25%, closing the month around 17% on the 7-day average.
• TCY followed the same trajectory, compressing from roughly 10% down toward the 1 to 2% range by month end.

Retention and User Acquisition

User acquisition held steady and was slightly higher in March despite the quieter trading environment.

Security and Supply

Bonds

Node count edged up to 105 in March, adding two operators from February's 103. Total bonded capital sits at 97.45M RUNE ($39.22M), the average bond per node holds at 928,110 RUNE ($373.56K), consistent with February's figures.

The minimum bond requirement stands at 433,437 RUNE ($174.46K), with the maximum effective cap at 1,004,102 RUNE ($404.15K). Node operators held their positions through the quiet month, keeping capital locked and the network secured.

Supply

RUNE supply distribution remained essentially unchanged through March. Bonded, pooled, reserve, and CEX holdings all held flat, with no meaningful shift between categories.

Burn

March burned $39K in $RUNE over the 30 day period, down from February's $56K, tracking the lower volume and system income.

Cumulative burns now sit at $641K lifetime.

The mechanism keeps running automatically, removing supply regardless of conditions.

Frontends

Leaderboard by Fees

THORChain Swap's native frontend dominated the two highest volume days of the month, March 5th and March 10th, with SwapKit taking a strong share alongside it on both spikes.

SwapKit maintained consistent presence throughout, forming the backbone of baseline affiliate volume.

THORSwap appeared regularly across the month, with TrustWallet, Vultisig, and Asgardex contributing smaller but steady flows.

Swap Count by Affiliate

Zooming out on the Dune dashboard, swap count by affiliate tells a broader story.

Daily swap counts have grown substantially since 2021 and have stabilised around 2k, with activity spikes following market trends.

Affiliate diversification has also increased, showing that THORChain integrations across frontends such as Trust Wallet, Ledger, and others are effective.

RapidSwaps

RapidSwaps picked up meaningfully toward the end of March. Cumulative volume reached $1.7M by March 30th, climbing from nearly $400k on March 22nd. The feature is gaining traction fast !

In terms of volume share, RapidSwap went from under 1% of total THORChain volume on March 22nd to 11.64% by March 30th. All of this in just 9 days.

Key Takeaways

March closed as another building month. Volume compressed further to $801M, system income came in at $820K, and yields softened across both RUNE and TCY. None of that stopped the protocol from shipping. v3.16.0 activated, native SOL swaps resumed, and RapidSwap went from zero to 11.64% of total protocol volume in nine days. 105 nodes held firm, $39K burned, and new wallet creation ticked up slightly.

If there are specific metrics or themes you want included in future editions, drop your requests in the comments. We'll add the most relevant ones next month.

Data Sources: RUNETools, THORCharts, THORChain Explorer, Raynalitics, Dune, BooneTools

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