THORChain, a protocol designed for native asset settlement, emerged as the third-ranking decentralized exchange by trading volume last week, mainly attributed to the attraction of high yields near its native token RUNE. Data from DefiLlama shows that THORChain experienced a trading volume of $1.32 billion, securing the third spot behind Uniswap and PancakeSwap, which recorded $10.85 billion and $2.77 billion, respectively.
The platform also boasted the second-largest trading volume in the last 24 hours, reaching $334.3 million, which was almost $50 million higher than PancakeSwap, ranking it third. Over the past week, the native token RUNE surged by 51%, and in the past 30 days, it surged by over 200%, as reported by CoinGecko. This ascent of THORChain, surpassing Curve Finance, exceeded the earlier predictions of Chad Barraford, a core developer of THORChain.
Barraford expressed surprise at the rapid rise in a Nov. 13 (formerly Twitter) post, noting, "Well, this happened a lot faster than I thought. Just 2 days instead of 2 months." THORChain functions as a multi-chain variant of Uniswap, allowing users to swap native Bitcoin and Ethereum. THORSwap represents the decentralized exchange powered by the THORChain protocol.
The platform offers an average annual percentage rate (APR) close to 44%, with specific liquidity pools providing even higher APRs, like over 353% for the Bitcoin and RUNE currency pair. Notably, Bitcoin advocate Erik Voorhees highlighted that THORChain managed nearly 2% of the total Bitcoin spot trading volume, amounting to $224 million, between November 11 and 12.
Voorhees reiterated the importance of THORChain for principled Bitcoin enthusiasts, emphasizing its capacity as the only marketplace enabling large-scale Bitcoin trading without intermediaries, aligning with the core principles of Bitcoin itself. THORChain originated from the Binance Dexathon 2018, initiated by a development team, with several founding developers choosing to remain anonymous.
