THORChain (RUNE) is restarting. The decentralized cross-chain DEX, paused since May 15 after a $10.7M exploit drained one of its vaults, is rolling out v3.19, its official restart release, with mainnet adoption targeted for the first week of June.

RUNE is trading near $0.38–$0.41 at the time of writing, down sharply from pre-exploit levels and -35% over the past 30 days. It has a market cap of roughly $133M, making it the 222nd-largest digital asset.

The headline addition waiting in the wings once trading resumes: Monero. XMR is confirmed as the first asset in the DEX queue, giving THORChain a privacy-coin narrative no other major cross-chain protocol can currently match. The community is calling it a renaissance.

Here is the central tension this article unpacks: v3.19 fixes the immediate cryptographic problem and adds a genuinely unique asset. Whether that’s enough to reverse months of RUNE damage depends on execution, and THORChain’s execution track record is currently on trial.

The TSS THORChain Exploit Explained and What V3.19 Actually Fixes

THORChain employs a Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS) where multiple nodes must sign transactions, preventing any single node from moving funds independently.

An attacker exploited a flaw in the GG20 TSS implementation, leveraging undisclosed cryptographic weaknesses. Soda Labs confirmed it was a zero-day vulnerability and required human cryptographers to verify it, as AI models couldn’t replicate the attack.

The rollout of version 3.19 addresses this by patching the TSS library, resolving a ~$10M gap through a governance-approved migration and initiating an 11-stage restart that takes about a week to fully resume operations. Separately, a $700K accounting issue was also addressed.

A controversial decision was to temporarily close-source the TSS library during Soda Labs’ audit. Kenton, a THORChain member, noted that this choice allowed for faster recovery at the cost of transparency, sparking debate within the community. The library is expected to return to open-source status in upcoming releases.

EXCLUSIVE: Earn $10 USDC Via Binance Sign-Up

Why Monero First and Whether XMR Can Move the RUNE Needle

THORChain is attempting a resurgence following a month-long hiatus following its $10M exploit in mid-May, but can it rescue RUNE?

(SOURCE: TradingView)

Monero’s prominent position in the DEX queue stems from the lack of trustless, non-custodial options for XMR users, especially since major centralized exchanges have delisted it. If THORChain enables native XMR swaps, it could dominate permissionless Monero liquidity, allowing it to set a starting fee of 50 bps due to its pricing power.

For RUNE holders, increased Monero volume translates to greater demand for RUNE since every swap settles through it. This has sparked the “THORChain renaissance,” in which the integration of Monero is seen as a significant step beyond mere recovery. However, the protocol’s prior issues with privacy-asset integrations raise concerns about its ability to safely manage high-privacy L1S.

While Monero volume is expected to be moderate initially, the broader roadmap includes other assets such as Zcash and Polygon. Monero serves as the opening act for THORChain, not the entire show.

EXPLORE: Best Crypto Presales With Asymmetric Upside in the Current Market

Follow 99Bitcoins on X For the Latest Market Updates and Subscribe on YouTube For Daily Expert Market Analysis.

The post THORChain V3.19 Is Live: Monero Is First Up But Can it Save RUNE? appeared first on 99Bitcoins.





Source link