THORChain Prioritizes Stability Before Monero and New Features

THORSday Community Podcast #233 ft. CBarraford, KentonC137 & patriotsounds | September 10, 2026 | Watch the full episode on YouTube

By Raynalytics

TL;DR

• THORChain's engineering focus remains stability. A TSS signing issue was under investigation during the show, with v3.20.2 in testing and a follow-up v3.20.3 patch expected to address the issue. That means ADR29 activation and new-chain launches remain behind the stability gate.
• Monero is already trading on stagenet, according to Chad, but mainnet still awaits a more reliable protocol state. No launch date was announced.
• Router v6 is deployed on some EVM chains but its wider rollout, including memoless capabilities, still needs chain-by-chain testing. The team is also weighing stronger registration pricing and protections against memoless spam.
• Protocol-owned liquidity has reached roughly 225,000 $RUNE deployed, with 20% of system income continuing to flow into eligible pools. The POL Income dashboard now makes the current allocation and pool-priority logic easier to follow.
• THORChain Swap added support for the Exodus browser wallet. This is not an Exodus routing integration or partnership. A Houdini Swap privacy option is planned, not live, and would clearly disclose that its private routes use an off-chain, centralized intermediary.

1. The Stability Gate Remains Closed

The stability-first focus from last week is still the team's operating principle. During the show, Chad said a TSS signing issue appeared connected to the recently added rule that excludes jailed nodes from signing. The rule was intended to limit an attacker’s ability to collect information through repeated failed key-sign attempts, but the team was still tracing whether it had introduced an operational problem.

Chad Barraford said v3.20.2 had been cut and was being tested, with v3.20.3 expected to follow as a targeted patch for the TSS issue. The precise release timing was not guaranteed. What was clear was the order of operations: restore dependable signing and trading first, then resume normal feature work.

"I don't feel great about going back to normal ... signing is halted." (Chad)

That also delays ADR29 activation. Chad described the revenue-share change as a high-priority experiment once the protocol is back to normal, but not something the team wants to layer onto unresolved mainnet reliability issues. The same gate applies to new chains and other work that could add complexity.

The stability effort is not only reactive. Chad described a Midgard endpoint that runs statistical analysis over THORNode metrics, looking for anomalous values. The intended workflow is for engineers or agents to investigate those signals against the relevant code and logs. It is work in progress, not an autonomous maintenance system already running production fixes.

2. Memoless Swaps Need a Safer Rollout, Not a Faster One

Router v6 is already deployed on some EVM chains, but its rollout paused while the team dealt with the exploit and subsequent stability work. Chad said the upgrade is being introduced chain by chain, beginning with lower-risk routes. He did not confirm a final list of chains on the show.

One capability under that work is sending transaction instructions directly with an EVM transaction, rather than relying on a separate memo-registration flow. Chad said the route works in theory for $ETH and still needs testing for ERC-20 assets. Each chain also needs its own configuration enabled before the feature can be used.

The existing memoless flow remains off while the team evaluates a registration-pricing change. A proposed ramping price would make each additional occupied registration slot more expensive, rather than leaving an attacker able to reserve large numbers of possible inbound amounts at a flat cost. The team also discussed binding the expected amount into the registration, while noting that wallet and UTXO behavior makes this difficult to standardize.

"The way we've done it is a lot simpler and a lot more reliable." (Chad)

The risk discussed was narrow but important. A correctly registered transaction, or one carrying its instructions directly, is not the target case. The attacker is instead hoping someone sends an unregistered or incorrect amount that happens to match a pre-registered slot. Chad said the design currently uses a roughly six-hour window to give users and congested chains enough time, rather than creating a short expiry that could cause legitimate transactions to fail.

On the interface side, THORChain Swap added support for the Exodus browser wallet. Kenton immediately clarified that this does not mean Exodus routes swaps through the protocol, and it is not a partnership integration. He also said a private-send option powered by Houdini Swap is the next major THORChain Swap integration. The target discussed was one to two weeks, but it remains planned. The proposed UI would disclose that the privacy route is Houdini’s service and uses off-chain transactions through a centralized intermediary, not THORChain itself.

3. Monero Is Tested, but Mainnet Still Waits

For the Monero community, Chad’s status update was more concrete than a fresh launch promise: $XMR is trading on stagenet today. The implementation is therefore beyond an idea or an untested code path. He said a small set of bug fixes and patches was expected alongside v3.20.2, but did not characterize them as critical blockers.

"$XMR is actually trading right now on stagenet." (Chad)

The mainnet condition is still protocol stability. Chad framed the question as whether the team is comfortable adding a new chain while it is still addressing its own signing and operational issues. Once the protocol is back in a dependable state, he expects the team can return to shipping features such as Monero. That is a sequencing decision, not a new mainnet ETA.

The group also acknowledged a practical engineering tension: testing can always reveal another improvement. Chad described the need to decide when a system has been examined enough to ship, instead of staying in an endless loop of marginal refinements. For Monero, the current answer is that the code has demonstrated function on stagenet, while the surrounding protocol needs more stability before mainnet activation.

4. POL Turns Income Into Liquidity That Stays

Protocol-owned liquidity, or POL, is now the clearest example of the team’s preference for durable protocol capacity over a new feature launch. Twenty percent of system income is being directed into eligible pools. During the show, Denny displayed roughly 225,000 $RUNE deployed and said the allocation had so far gone to the TRON $USDT pool.

The destination is not a permanent manual choice. The calculation is refreshed every three days, then the protocol gradually deploys $RUNE into the pool with the strongest priority. Chad said shallower pools can get more execution benefit from a relatively small allocation than a large pool would. He expects $XMR could become a candidate once it launches, but that was his personal expectation, not an announced allocation plan.

"It is an asset and not a liability." (Chad)

That distinction matters because POL capital is intended to remain under protocol ownership. Chad described deeper pools as a route to faster execution, more trading activity and more income, while also acknowledging risks such as an exploit or an asset falling to zero. It is not a redeemable basket for $RUNE holders.

Raynalytics' POL Income dashboard now tracks that mechanism directly. Use System Income Collected for the inflow, POL Deposits by Pool Over Time and POL Positions by Pool for where funds land, and Pool Priority Details to see the inputs behind the next destination.

The group also revisited a possible reduction in the 5% $RUNE burn. Denny said the vote stood at 60.9% during the recording, still short of the required support. Moving part of that burn toward developers or POL was a live discussion, not an approved change.

What to Watch

• TSS and release patches: whether v3.20.2 and then v3.20.3 restore the reliability needed to end the stability-first period.
• Monero’s mainnet gate: a return to feature work is the condition discussed, not a calendar date.
• Memoless protections: the registration-pricing pull request, expected-amount binding and the chain-by-chain Router v6 rollout.
• Houdini Swap on THORChain Swap: integration progress and a clear explanation of the service’s off-chain, centralized privacy route.
• POL allocation: the next three-day priority refresh, changes in deployment destination and the growth visible on the POL Income dashboard.
• The burn vote: whether enough node support emerges for a proposed reallocation of part of the 5% $RUNE burn.

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