Thorchain Boosted Lending Capacity and Burned 12% of $RUNE Total Supply

Reported by The Defiant, Thorchain, a decentralized liquidity protocol that facilitates native asset swaps across blockchains, is making a comeback after a string of hacks and a 96% plunge from its all-time high.

RUNE has nearly doubled since the team burned 60 million RUNE tokens last week to boost its lending capacity by $100 million, which accounted for 12% of the total supply. Its total value locked (TVL) climbed 45% to $507 million in that time.

Overall, it’s a remarkable comeback for a veteran DeFi protocol founded in 2018 with much fanfare that fell out of favor after being plagued by a series of exploits.

Thorchain offers interest-free loans against major crypto assets like Bitcoin and Ether, with no liquidations or fixed expiry date. As part of the latest upgrade, collateralization ratios for BTC and ETH were reduced to 200%, meaning users can borrow half the value of their assets.

With stablecoin borrowing rates across DeFi climbing into double-digits on increased demand for leverage amid the ongoing crypto rally, Thorchain presents an attractive alternative for borrowers.

“If you are leveraged long BTC or ETH and plan to stay that way for the next 30 days, you’re being financially foolish if you don’t move over to Thorchain no-interest and no-liquidation loans,” wrote crypto investor Tyler Reynolds.

However, it’s worth noting that Thorchain’s offering differs markedly from traditional overcollateralized loans on DeFi lending protocols like Maker or Aave, which hold borrowers’ collateral under lien until outstanding loans are repaid.

When a loan is opened on Thorchain, the collateral asset is sold for RUNE, while the difference between the collateral value and the loan value is burned. Debt is denominated in TOR – a dollar-pegged unit of account internal to Thorchain – which is based off the median price of all the stablecoins supported by the protocol.

Conversely, when loans are repaid, RUNE is minted and swapped for the original collateral asset, which is returned to the borrower. A potential risk of the design is excessive minting of RUNE if too many borrowers rush to redeem their collateral at the same time during. However, the team has put multiple safeguards in place, including circuit breakers and loan caps, to mitigate the risk.