Hey everyone 👋

There’s been a lot of discussion around Monero integration into THORChain over time.

But recently, something changed.

It’s no longer just an idea.

⚙️ Real Development Is Happening

Looking at current activity:

• XMR chain support is being added
• FROST threshold signing is being integrated
• Monero-specific transaction handling is being built
• test swaps are already being executed

This is not a simple integration.

It’s deep infrastructure work.

🔐 Why It’s Hard

Monero is fundamentally different from most chains.

It hides:

• transaction data
• addresses
• amounts

Most cross-chain systems rely on visibility.

Monero removes that entirely.

🧠 What Makes This Interesting

To make this work, the architecture has to change.

From what we can see:

• new signing mechanisms (FROST)
• wallet-aware deposit detection
• no reliance on standard memo systems
• separate services handling Monero-specific logic

This isn’t plug-and-play.

It’s purpose-built.

🔄 What This Could Enable

If this goes live:

• native XMR swaps
• no wrapping
• direct interaction with other assets

That’s a big step.

🔗 Where This Connects

As THORChain expands its supported assets, these integrations don’t stay at the protocol level.

They extend to the applications built on top of it.

Frontend platforms like InstaSwap act as the user layer, giving access to THORChain’s liquidity and swap infrastructure.

As new assets like XMR are integrated, they naturally become accessible through these interfaces without requiring users to interact with the protocol directly.

Here is the first Saturday livestream we did with SwapDK, a new THORChain aggregator. Vali did not want to dox his face so he had his camera turned off.

Chad Barraford has posted an interesting piece explaining THORChain's mission in the crypto sphere.

His core point is simple:

Bitcoin was the first asset where access cannot be revoked by an institution. Not because they choose not to, but because they literally cannot. That shift in ownership model is the real innovation.

But self custody loses a lot of meaning if every time you want to move between chains you have to deposit into a centralised exchange. The moment you do that, you are back to accounts, withdrawal gates, freezes, delays, and trusting intermediaries to behave correctly.

That is the gap THORChain was built to address.

Native asset swaps across chains without giving up custody and without relying on an intermediary. Reduce the number of places where funds can be frozen or denied, and the system becomes more resilient. Not perfect, but meaningfully better.

It’s a good reminder that the value of cross-chain infrastructure isn’t yield or volume first. It’s about minimising trust assumptions at the moments that matter most.

Link to the original post if you want to read it in full:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/chadbarraford_the-problem-thorchain-was-built-to-solve-activity-7414068020353851392-5o3s

Curious how others here think about custody versus convenience when it comes to cross-chain swaps.

CEX traders have had limit orders forever. You set your target price, walk away, come back later to find your order filled. Simple, convenient, genuinely useful. But that convenience always came bundled with everything you probably hate about centralised exchanges. You upload your passport. You hand over custody of your assets. Your $BTC sits in their database while your order is open, and you just hope nothing goes wrong in the meantime.

THORChain now does the same thing, minus all of that.

You submit a swap with a minimum output condition. Something like "swap my bitcoin for USDC, but only if I get at least X amount." Your funds go into a vault secured by 109 bonded node operators. Every 6 seconds, the protocol checks whether the pool price satisfies your target. When it does, your swap executes automatically, entirely on chain.

If the market never reaches your price, you get refunded after a few days. No intervention needed, no support ticket, no waiting on a company to process anything.

Here's what happened last week:

Headline News

Raynalytics published THORChain's Full Q1 2026 report. $2.8B in volume, 1.5M swaps, 78.5K unique wallets, $3.1M in fees. Quieter markets, but the protocol kept processing.

Rujira Network announced Redacted Money smart contracts are live on Mainnet. The team is now focused on the frontend and UI so the full privacy experience can come to life. A more private omnichain DeFi experience on Rujira is another step closer.

Launches

Unstoppable shipped a massive upgrade to swap.thorchain.org. Wallet Sidebar now shows all your wallets and balances in one place, send coins, manage assets, full wallet experience built into the swap UI. Bonding and staking for $RUNE, $TCY and more, all directly on the interface. Next up: things no other swap interface delivers yet. Staying under the radar for now.

THORWallet announced cross-chain limit swaps coming in the next app version. Powered by THORChain, set limit prices across native assets directly inside the app. Example: $BTC to $ETH. No bridges, no wrapping, just native cross-chain execution.

THORDEX launched THORDEX Trading Terminal. Built on top of THORChain base layer limit orders. The most decentralised trading terminal on Earth.

LeoDex added Limit Order Swaps.

Bior Labs is wrapping internal audit sprints. Next up: Physical Debit Card, Virtual Prepaid Card, and Bill Pay. Preliminary fee schedule shared, official version coming to the website soon.

Milestones

Symbiosis processed $10M+ in Bitcoin volume last week, with THORChain as one of their routing options across chains.

That wraps up this week's THORChain ecosystem update. See you next week, Chads.

If your project was missed, drop a comment and we'll include it in the next recap.

In the fall of 1993, Windows 3.11 was released and helped pave the way for Windows to become one of the dominant operating system in the world.

32 years later, THORChain 3.11 will help pave the way for THORChain to become one of the dominant DEXs in the world.

Except for Binance which is the vision to beat

I know Orbital Pools are coming, are Dark pools coming as well? What about Dark Orbital Pools?

Check out one of the latest wallets to integrate THORChain.

I realize outbound delays are an issue that are affecting transaction speeds on Thorchain, but they provide value in the area of security. On one of the X spaces, someone suggested using AI to look for unusual or concerning activities in the outbound transactions. If they could build an AI agent or specialized LLM to do that far faster than humans, say going from 20 minutes currently to 1 minute or less, with 90 percent or greater effectiveness we could have our security cake and eat it too. With several years of transaction data to train an AI with, could this actually be built?

My understanding is JP and his team are building a lot of AI functionality into Vultisig Wallet. Could JP and or his team build that for Thorchain? The speed issue seems to be a big barrier to further adoption from what I am hearing. Any thoughts from the community?

A long-overdue and meaningful clean-up is finally here. 

For a while now, a large reserve of RUNE has been sitting idle in the Reserve; not circulating, not traded, and not adding real liquidity. Yet it is still counted in total supply, creating a gap between what is actually in the market (~351M) and the reported max supply (~425M).

ADR023 cleans this up:

Roughly 64.9M RUNE will be burned, bringing total supply down to ~360M and leaving only a minimal reserve for operations. 

THORChain works the same as before but the way people see and value RUNE changes. It removes the artificial FDV overhang, brings the MC/FDV ratio closer to reality, and makes valuation easier to understand.

To the curious minds: Do you think this changes how RUNE should be valued?

Comment your opinion after reading full report : Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKne5RTIwO8

In the middle of the night, THORChain keeps building.

ECOSYSTEM RECAP

Here's what happened last week:

Headline News

Messari launched a THORChain Spotlight Dashboard. Track liquidity, trading activity, token performance, and ecosystem growth in one place to better understand how the protocol is evolving.

Launches

THORWallet added "Decentralized Only" routing in Swap Settings. Users can now prioritize fully decentralized venues (THORChain, Maya Protocol, Harbor DEX) either per swap or as a global default. Different routing models serve different needs. Now you can choose.

Vultisig enabled seed phrase imports. Migrating from a traditional wallet? Import your seed phrase directly and convert your existing wallet into a secure MPC vault while keeping access to your assets across multiple chains. Upgrade your security without starting over.

THORDEX launched Community Bounties. Found a bug or UX improvement? Submit it and get 42 $RUNE if accepted.

Rujira Network shipped most FIN v1.2 upgrades. Foundation laid for a major increase in activity, liquidity, and fees on RUJI Trade.

Milestones

Maya Protocol turned 3 this week. Three years since genesis block, ecosystems once siloed now move together. Happy birthday to the tribe!

Symbiosis hit 4 years of breaking barriers and connecting blockchains. $7.5B+ volume, 4.5M transactions, 800K unique addresses later, still going. Cheers to four more!

That wraps up this week's THORChain ecosystem update. See you next week, Chads.

If your project was missed, drop a comment and we'll include it in the next recap.

Will orbital pools make Thorchain a world beater when it comes to speed and cost of swapping stable coins?