By George Ward
The THORChain network, the world’s first high-performance, cross-chain liquidity protocol, was recently put on hold due to reports of a potential vulnerability that malicious actors could have exploited. This announcement surprised many protocol users, as THORChain had been running smoothly for several weeks without significant issues.
However, the team noted that the vulnerability was not a critical security issue but a potential issue susceptible to exploitation. Hence, the THORChain team responded quickly by taking the necessary steps to ensure user safety as it recognized the potential risk.
They decided to halt the network while investigating the reports and verifying their validity as a precautionary measure.
THORChain Temporarily Suspends Trading Operations
On Tuesday, THORChain tweeted that it had temporarily suspended all trading operations due to reports of a possible vulnerability related to one of the protocol’s dependencies. As a protective measure, the network has stopped operation until the investigation is completed.
Reports suggested a vulnerability could impact the THORSec safety team and THORChain’s liquidity platform, Nine Realms. Hence, the shutdown of the THORChain network to investigate the reported issue.
Nine Realms tweeted that the Network Operators (NOs) had taken the precaution of preemptively pausing the protocol. Consequently, RUNE (the native token of THORChain) has experienced a decrease of 1.6% in the last 24 hours, per CoinGecko data.
Established in 2018, THORChain is an open-source, decentralized protocol that enables users to swap digital assets between numerous blockchain networks without centralized exchanges. THORChain’s settlement layer facilitates swaps among eight blockchains, including Ethereum, Bitcoin, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Dogecoin, Cosmos, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.
Previous Occurrences
This recent pause of THORChain’s network is not a solitary one. In October 2022, the system was suspended due to a software error that caused “non-determinism between single nodes.” The network resumed operation and became fully operative 20 hours after maintenance completion.
Similarly, Hackers targeted THORChain during its Chaosnet deployment two years ago, resulting in the protocol losing approximately $140,000 worth of assets. The good news is that the THORChain team has successfully verified the reports and restarted the network.
Therefore, users can rest assured that their funds are safe as the team takes the necessary steps to protect their investments.