Cross-chain liquidity protocol THORChain has suspended its network due to a new claim of a potential network vulnerability.
THORChain announced on Twitter on March 28 that it had halted all transactions following reports of a potential vulnerability in THORChain dependencies that could affect the network. THORChain stated that the decision was taken as a precautionary measure when verifying the report. The announcement comes shortly after social media reports indicated that THORChain’s liquidity platform Nine Realms and dedicated security team THORSec received “credible reports” of a potential vulnerability affecting THORChain. According to reports, the THORChain network was subsequently halted globally.
"Network preemptively suspended by NO to investigate report; update to follow," Nine Realms tweeted. The news came out that THORChain native token Rune. It has fallen about 5%, according to data from CoinGecko. At the time of writing, the token is trading at $1.32, down 18% over the past 30 days.
Founded in 2018, THORChain is a decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol that allows users to exchange assets between different blockchain networks without using a centralized exchange. THORChain's settlement layer currently provides exchanges between eight chains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Cosmos, Dogecoin, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash. The latest outage of the THORChain network is not the first. The network was suspended in October 2022 after a software bug caused "indeterminacy among the various nodes". After 20 hours of maintenance, the network returned to normal operation.
In 2021, THORChain also shut down its network after the protocol was breached, with hackers stealing $7.6 million in crypto assets. About 8 hours after the initial announcement, THORChain reposted a pause update on Twitter, indicating that the developers and security team had managed to determine that the disclosure was credible. “However, it required a malicious node in the last churn,” the update said, adding that THORChain has resumed transactions because “no node could exploit the current vulnerability.”
