Decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol THORChain halted all trading on Friday after attackers drained roughly $10.8 million in assets spanning four blockchains.
THORChain Halts Trading After Multi-Chain Breach
The protocol paused trading and signing operations after on-chain investigator ZachXBT flagged suspicious withdrawals on Telegram.
Blockchain security firm PeckShield confirmed the breach soon after.
The attacker hit Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), BNB Chain and Coinbase's Base network in what appears to be a coordinated, simultaneous strike. According to Arkham Intelligence data cited by CoinDesk, wallets tied to the exploiter currently hold 3,443 ETH worth about $7.77 million, 36.85 BTC worth roughly $2.97 million, and 96.6 BNB worth $66,000.
THORChain's Mimir governance module flipped trading-halt and signing-halt parameters to active, triggering a node pause that began at block 26190429. The pause is set to run for about 12 hours and 42 minutes. No post-mortem has been published yet.
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RUNE Drops 12% as Analysts Sound the Alarm
Native token RUNE tumbled about 12% on the news, slipping from $0.58 to near $0.50, according to BeInCrypto citing CoinGecko data. ZachXBT outlined three theft addresses but has not yet attributed the incident to a known threat actor.
Cross-chain bridges and liquidity protocols remain the most exploited slice of decentralized finance.
Chainalysis figures peg cumulative bridge-related theft at more than $2.8 billion since 2021. Friday's breach is at least the third security incident for THORChain in recent years.
Analysts say the timing stings. The protocol has been pitching itself as a maturing DeFi base layer, with a Monero integration and a smart-contract app layer in development. A fresh exploit complicates that narrative for investors weighing RUNE on fundamentals rather than headline volume.
RUNE Price Context Heading Into the Hack
THORChain has had a rough few months even before Friday. Earlier this year, security researchers raised concerns about laundering flows through the protocol, including funds tied to the Coinbase data-theft incident, after the exploiter routed more than $42 million in BTC into ETH using THORChain swaps.
RUNE had traded in a relatively tight band near $0.58 in recent sessions before the hack, with the broader altcoin market drifting sideways.
Friday's drop wiped out gains accumulated over the past two weeks and pushed the token to a fresh short-term low around $0.50.
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