THORChain Prints $10B Quarter

THORChain (RUNE) just posted a quarter that would make most centralized exchanges blush. The network pushed volume of $10.4 billion, clipped $6.1 million in swap fees, and watched total liquidity jump from $122 million to $180 million - even after slashing minimum fees to keep its swaps cheap. 

The top route? Plain old BTC-ETH at a spicy $1.8 billion. The signal is obvious: if you want to move size without KYC, the pool party is on THORChain.

That liquidity bump did not arrive by accident. Core devs spent Q2 shoveling upgrades: Batch Bifrost batched attestations to shrink gossip traffic, extended UTXO memos let power users cram complex swaps into Bitcoin scripts, and a fresh maintenance mode lets validators patch servers without derailing consensus. 

All that housekeeping tees up the next headline - block times are gunning for two seconds. Faster blocks mean faster streaming swaps, happier arbitrage bots, and, yes, fatter volume.

Forward guidance reads like a tourist brochure for chain integrations. TRON (TRX) goes live this month, Solana (SOL) once EdDSA support lands, and Noble.USDC hands the protocol its first canonical stablecoin.

Native IBC deposits will junk third-party bridges, while secured-asset LPing turns wrapped tokens into real liquidity. The 2025 roadmap aims for a lean base layer that settles in seconds, while an app layer (hello, Rujira) handles perps, lending, and whatever acronym DeFi invents next.

Governance knobs got attention too. A dynamic TVL cap multiplier lets nodes throttle growth if risk creeps up, yet exempts native assets so application builders are not left in limbo. If things get dicey, operators can yank the handbrake without nuking the entire market. 

Meanwhile, the swap-fee cut to five basis points is already pulling order flow from CEXs. More volume begets deeper books, which begets tighter spreads, which begets more volum; flywheel engaged.

Why traders care: lower fees plus new chains equals more rotational flow. If the two-second target lands on schedule, expect latency-sensitive funds to migrate en masse. 

Keep one eye on the TVL cap dial; a surprise tightening could squeeze positions. Until then, the liquidity machine keeps humming and the swaps keep clearing.

Also See: Billion-Dollar Crypto Wipeouts Return

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