Why is ThorChain Trending: The Platform Aims to Grow TVL for More Liquid DeFi

ThorChain (RUNE) is extending its one-week rally, trading above $6.06 after a few days of gradual growth. The asset defied the overall stagnant market mood, recovering from weekly lows of $4.80. 

So far, RUNE has managed to regain some of the losses during the early April correction. The coin is yet to move back to the $7.50 range. However, the latest price move broke an important resistance, setting expectations for RUNE to move higher. 

Loans back open for bizness on @THORChain

Get in there!

Go to @Lends_so for an interface to use to open a loan pic.twitter.com/wZYKOwir00

— JPTHOR (ACCEL) (@jpthor89) May 9, 2024

The latest price moves may boost attention for RUNE, as the asset awaits a breakout to double-digit levels. In short-term predictions, RUNE is seen climbing toward $12. Price setbacks also show a trend to buy the dip and wait for the breakout.

RUNE is a relatively new asset with an all-time high at only $20. During the current bull market, RUNE only recovered to $10, but hopes remain that the asset is undervalued and may go even above its previous record.

Why ThorChain Recovering Faster than the Market

ThorChain is keen on active community outreach, and has a growing presence on social media. To compare, ThorChain has grown to around 10% of Solana’s social media influence, based on CryptoCompare statistics.

This exposure is enough, so that network updates get a response from social media and from markets. Recently, ThorChain updated its node software to optimise gas usage and fees. The latest upgrade extended the RUNE price rally, while other major assets continued trading sideways. 

THORNode v132 has landed

– Better execution when closing loans
– Outbound gas fixes will make L1 tx fees cheaper than ever

More Quality of Life fixes coming in the next version. THORChads ship. Onwards! pic.twitter.com/ynA5rJd8E4

— THORChain (@THORChain) May 8, 2024

The project is also self-monitoring for activities, and marked a successful week after the upgrade. ThorChain aims to maximize its usage for cross-chain swaps, liquidity pools and overall decentralization.

Most of the ThorChain activity comes from Trust Wallet, which aggregates all use cases from NFT to DEX trades. 

𝙊𝙣𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙒𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙏𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙪𝙨 : 𝙏𝙃𝙊𝙍𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙞𝙣

Weekly Activity on .@THORChain

Key Metrics :

• Total Transactions
• Volume
• Volume Difference
• Average Transaction Per User

👇 https://t.co/KCEhZ0h6Eq pic.twitter.com/3e5JS5z2uK

— ᏖᏋᏒᏒᎥᏬᏕ (@BigTerrius) May 8, 2024

ThorChain also added new users in April, although at a slightly slower pace compared to the previous months.

ThorChain Offers Learn-to-Earn Program

ThorChain was in the spotlight for its newly launched learning program with incentives. Affiliated projects of ThorChain and the Maya Ecosystem will provide the rewards for an educational series on blockchain technology and Web3 use cases. 

An incentivized @THORChain Learning Program where 100% of the rewards are donated by ~99% of TC & @Maya_Protocol ecosystem projects?

Uh, yes, please

(p.s. This isn't close to all of the projects involved and new tokens continue to roll in) pic.twitter.com/VRCNgrN0EK

— THORChain University 🎓 (@THORChainUni) May 7, 2024

Users can earn RUNE tokens and other assets like CACAO for completing tasks and missions. ThorChain aims to grow its outreach, after offering various tiers of engagement, from developer tools to node incentives. 

Shout out to the devs, community, node operators, and everyone else dedicated to making @THORChain a success. The relentless effort of everyone involved is ensuring that will have decentralized rails to move from chain to chain as needed. It really is a magical protocol. $RUNE

— THORmacbee (@deemacbee) May 8, 2024

Despite the activity, ThorChain has only four large commits to its codebase in the past 12 months, leaving it behind some of the more active projects. ThorChain also relies on external services to monitor the health of its network. 

Did my first ‘make pause’ to the @THORChain network today:

1) TC is actually decentralized; ~100 nodes secure it & it’s our job to protect the protocol/TVL. @iceman00008 (+ Multi) & I observed the outbound queue growing & found a new bug affecting gas observation consensus.

— Runetard ⚡️ 🍫 💦 🚀 (@therunetard) May 7, 2024

ThorChain aims to build a highly decentralized blockchain, while ensuring speed to grow its DeFi applications. 

ThorChain Returns to Decentralized Lending

ThorChain had a revival of DeFi in Q1, where total assets expanded above $500M. Currently, ThorChain carries more than $380M worth of assets and is trying to recover decentralized finance. 

ThorChain itself serves as a native DEX, and now aims to boost its liquidity for a renewed crypto lending program. Lends_so is using the infrastructure of ThorChain to offer low-cost lending and passive returns, while secured by high-value collaterals. 

Loans back open for bizness on @THORChain

Get in there!

Go to @Lends_so for an interface to use to open a loan pic.twitter.com/wZYKOwir00

— JPTHOR (ACCEL) (@jpthor89) May 9, 2024

ThorChain has positioned itself as a decentralized hub for trading major blue-chip assets. The expectation of another DeFi summer may benefit ThorChain, which is already carrying several liquidity pools based on major coins and tokens.

One of the potential problems for ThorChain is the scarcity of wallets that carry the asset. RUNE runs on a native blockchain, which has around 105K addresses in 2024. Trust Wallet is one of the key resources for ThorChain to communicate with the wider decentralized ecosystem. 

For now, ThorChain achieves around $1B in monthly swap volumes, relying on organic growth. ThorChain interacts with a small selection of platforms and chains, the most prominent among them Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, BNBCoin and Avalanche.