THORChain Resumes Trading After $10.7M Exploit Forced Shutdown

THORChain resumed full trading operations today, ending a more than five-week shutdown triggered by a May exploit that drained approximately $10.7 million from one of its Asgard vaults. 

The decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol confirmed that signing, churning, liquidity provider actions, and swaps are all live again, prioritizing a complete security audit over a fast restart.

THORChain paused trading on May 15 after blockchain investigator ZachXBT and security firm PeckShield flagged a suspected exploit spanning Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Base. 

The attacker targeted a single vulnerability in one of the protocol's six Asgard vaults, draining around $10.7 million. The remaining five vaults were reportedly unaffected.

Before resuming operations, the protocol said every vault was verified and every keyshare checked. 

Node operators, developers, and the Maya Protocol team were credited with maintaining network stability throughout the recovery process. 

THORChain, which describes itself as the world's leading Bitcoin decentralized exchange, enabling native cross-chain swaps without wrapping or bridging, said security was deliberately prioritized over speed in its return to service.

With trading restored, THORChain has outlined its near-term development roadmap. 

THORChain noted that native Monero (XMR) swaps are already functional in end-to-end testing, with a full launch expected in the near term. 

Support for Zcash (ZEC) integration, along with dynamic fee adjustments and deeper liquidity improvements, is also part of the upcoming roadmap.

RUNE, the protocol's native token, made over 9% price jump to around $0.429 price level over the past 24hours, right ahead of the protocol’s announcement. RUNE trades around $0.421 at the time of writing, sitting at the historical resistance level.

THORChain is one of the largest decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocols and a key venue for native Bitcoin swaps without centralized intermediaries. Its successful recovery and restart is a signal for the broader DeFi sector on how protocols can manage major exploit shutdowns while preserving user trust and network integrity.

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