THORChain Quarterly Report - Q2 2026

2026-07-17 — 7 min read

Report

Summary

THORChain processed approximately $2.06 billion in volume in Q2 2026 and generated around $2.37 million in fees, in a quarter defined by a five-week network halt rather than steady growth. A cryptographic zero-day exploit on May 15 drained an estimated $10.7 million from a single Asgard vault, halting the network until its restart on June 22.

The quarter still delivered on several fronts: ADR-023's RUNE burn was executed, ADR-025 moved the Dev Fund to a new multisig, and two major upgrades, v3.18 and v3.19, shipped a dynamic fee model (ADR-026), the MinSlipBps model for Rujira, and the security patches behind the restart. ADR-028 authorized the phased path back to production, now complete, though the financial recovery itself remains unresolved.

Several governance proposals are moving through discussion, including POL Reserve routing (ADR-024), affiliate revenue share (ADR-029), delegated node permissions (ADR-030), and the Rujira cooperation vote (ADR-031). Looking ahead, Monero and TAO remain the most awaited integrations, with Zcash, DASH, and eCash also in the pipeline.

A Look At Q2 2026 Metrics

General Metrics:

Total USD Volume: $2.06B
Highest 24h Volume: $459.11M
Change in Total Liquidity: $66.82M to 48.93M
Swap Fees Collected: $2.37M
Affiliate Earnings: $755.48K
Affiliate Volume: $720.39M

Top Swap Routes By Volume:

1. BTC <> ETH: $1.12B

2. BTC <> USDT: $207.05M

3. BTC <> USDC: $77.31M

4. ETH <> USDT: $71.018M

5. BCH <> ETH: $48.11M

Top Swap Routes By Swap Fees Collected:

1. BTC <> ETH: $2.33M

2. BTC <> USDT: $466.24K

3. BTC <> USDC: $176.71K

4. ETH <> USDT: $173.26K

5. BTC <> RUNE: $149.13K

Top Affiliates By Swap Volume

1. THORChain Swap - $262.41M

2. Asgardex - $169.54M

3. SwapKit - $93.50M

4. ShapeShift - $74.47M

5. TrustWallet - $27M

What’s New On THORChain In Q2 2026

THORChain Exploit Halted Trading For Five Weeks

On May 15, THORChain identified unauthorized outbound transactions from one of its five Asgard vaults. The cause was a cryptographic zero-day in THORChain's GG20 threshold signing protocol: an attacker churned into the network as a validator, planted a subtly flawed key during vault setup, then deliberately failed signing rounds hundreds of times to leak fragments of other validators' key shares. Once enough fragments had accumulated, the attacker reconstructed the vault's private key and drained it directly. Losses were initially estimated at $7.4M, later revised to approximately $10.7M.

The damage stayed contained to a single vault and EdDSA-secured chains, including Solana, were never exposed. THORChain's automatic solvency checker halted the affected chains within the hour, and node operators brought the entire network to a full stop shortly after via manual pauses and governance votes. The network stayed offline for roughly five weeks, restarting June 22 with patched TSS code, a governance-approved recovery framework (ADR-028), and a staged, security-first rollout.

ADR-023: Adjusting RUNE Supply - Executed

ADR-023 proposed burning the bulk of the non-circulating RUNE sitting in the Reserve, a holdover from when it funded block rewards. That burn was executed with v3.17 in April, removing roughly 65M RUNE and bringing total supply down to approximately 360M, closely aligned with circulating supply.

https://blog.thorchain.org/adr023-changing-rune-fdv

ADR-025: Dev Fund Transition

ADR-025, proposed in Q1, has been executed. The Dev Fund has moved off the Nine Realms-controlled address to a new multisig operated by Son of Odin (THORChain), Aaluxx (Maya Protocol), and mazze (THORWallet).

ADR-026: Dynamic Fee Adopted

Every swap on THORChain pays a minimum fee (if not the slip fee), and until now that floor was a single fixed number applied network-wide. ADR-026 replaces that single floor with one that adjusts independently per partner and trading pair, moving in small, bounded steps every 24 hours based on whether the last move raised or lowered actual fee revenue. The logic is to have code-driven optimization of fee revenue per pool and per partner, to capture more volume and increase competitiveness.

The mechanism shipped with v3.18 in May, disabled by default, and is now progressively turned on for whitelisted partners.

https://blog.thorchain.org/adr026-dynamic-fee-model

ADR-028: Recovery Framework - Partially Executed

In the aftermath of the May 15 exploit, node operators needed a governance framework to decide how the network would respond, both technically and financially. ADR-028 became that framework: it authorized the phased path back to production (patch, audit, staged key verification, coordinated restart), which is now complete. What ADR-028 hasn't yet settled is the financial recovery, which is still to be done.

MinSlipBps For Rujira Virtualization Strategy

v3.18 introduced a dedicated minimum slip fee model for swaps originating from Rujira's virtualization layer. The rujira-thorchain-swap contract virtualizes THORChain's base-layer liquidity inside Rujira's orderbooks, letting app-layer liquidity arbitrage THORChain pools more efficiently and reducing price dislocation between the orderbook and the underlying AMM.

Previously, swaps from this contract used the same default minimum slip fee as everything else. With MinSlipBps, they now use a separate, configurable floor tailored to that arbitrage flow, producing tighter spreads and more accurate quoting across swap sizes.

Protocol Upgrades v3.18 And v3.19

This quarter, the code got two massive upgrades: v3.18 and v3.19, and the curious minds can read more about them in the respective blog articles.

https://blog.thorchain.org/protocol-upgrade-v3-19-0

https://blog.thorchain.org/thorchain-protocol-upgrade-v3-18

What’s Coming Next On THORChain

New Chains Integration

Work is still ongoing on the upcoming integrations, with Monero and TAO the most awaited. Zcash, DASH, and eCash are also in the pipeline. Most of the work has already been integrated into the protocol through v3.18 and v3.19: testing, adjusting, and seeding pools are the next phases.

ADR-029: Affiliate Revenue Share - In Discussion

Today affiliates can charge users a fee on top of a swap and ADR-029 proposes the reverse. REVSHARE would let THORChain optionally share a portion of its own swap liquidity fees back with approved affiliate THORNames, configured per THORName through a Mimir key and capped by a governance-set maximum. The idea is to get a new lever to onboard integrators and partners in a way that's net-positive for protocol revenue.

The proposal is open for community discussion in a dedicated Discord channel, with SwapKit already presenting a concrete proposal for how they'd use it to grow swap volume and fee generation. Vote and technical implementation are next.

ADR-024: POL Reserve System Income Routing - In Discussion

ADR-024 lays out the mechanics for Protocol-Owned Liquidity: a dedicated POL Reserve that can absorb a configurable share of system income and redeploy it as RUNE liquidity into selected pools, based on pool performance rather than a fixed schedule. The groundwork is already built: the POL Reserve module, its deployment logic, and the supporting Mimir governance controls shipped with v3.18 in May, so the network already has the technical capability to route income into its own liquidity.

What's still unresolved is the calibration: how large a share of income should flow into the reserve, which pools get priority and by what criteria, and how aggressively the reserve should deploy or unwind positions. Discussions are ongoing.

ADR-030: Delegated Node Operator Permissions - In Discussion

A node's BondAddress currently serves as both the custody key for bonded RUNE and the key for routine operator actions (maintenance mode, leave requests, fee changes, bond-provider whitelist). ADR-030 proposes letting operators delegate those operational actions to separate, lower-privilege hot wallets while keeping custody cold (delegates can never move bonded RUNE, collect rewards, or unbond). Discussion is ongoing in the dedicated Discord channel.

ADR-031: Rujira Cooperation Vote - In Discussion

A governance proposal asks node operators to formally confirm THORChain's long-term relationship with Rujira and the App Layer, prompted by the end of Rujira's non-compete and a desire for clearer guidelines after the May exploit. Three options are on the table, ranging from reinforcing the existing exclusive cooperation to discontinuing the App Layer relationship with Rujira stating its preference for reinforcing it. Discussions are ongoing and a vote should take place relatively soon.