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THORChain Fundamental Analysis
RUNE is a token powering THORChain – a liquidity platform used as a fast, cheap, and decentralized cryptocurrency exchange, on the one hand, and an opportunity for some users to become liquidity providers and get some yield on their idle digital assets, on the other hand. Importantly, it facilitates cross-chain swaps, but unlike most of the existing solutions, does not require a third party i.e. centralization for that. THORChain was launched on Binance DEX through IDO in 2019, but its mainnet went live in January 2021. The people behind the project keep maintaining their anonymity.
As a decentralized exchange, THORChain allows its users to swap assets using liquidity pools, without having to give up their custody of those assets to the exchange, with no order books. THORChain uses some novel or unique technologies – for example, a way to mitigate impermanent loss or a protocol for cross-chain swaps.
RUNE as a token has multiple purposes, one of which is also facilitating cross-chain swaps by being a native settlement currency that is supplied to liquidity pools. The network is secured with Proof-of-Bond protocol, requiring every node to provide RUNE as a bond to discourage attacks – the details make this usage THORChain-specific too. RUNE is also used in more or less ordinary situations like providing network incentives, governing the network, and securing the assets.
THORChain Live Price Chart
From the project’s IDO in 2019 until January 2021, there was little movement involving RUNE on the market, so its price didn’t fluctuate much either, very slowly rising from ~$0.02 to ~$1.15 in early 2021. By spring of the same year, RUNE’s price gained a lot of momentum, as some interesting tweaks and additions to the protocol were being deployed or at least announced. Also, due to the token’s nature (being used as a settlement currency in liquidity pools), its price tends to be at least partially correlated with the general market. All this led to RUNE surging to $21.26 on May 19, which is its all-time high. Since then, however, its price has generally been in decline, which seemingly stopped around the ~$6-$7 mark.
