THORChain halted its network after the discovery of new vulnerabilities

Updated: 28 March 2023

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THORChain, one of the crypto industry’s cross-chain liquidity protocols, recently had to halt its network once again. This time, the network was paused as a precautionary measure as new claims of potential vulnerabilities emerged. In order to address the reports and assess the dangers, the developers paused the network rather than allow it to continue and risk someone misusing the vulnerabilities.

THORChain network comes to a stop due to a vulnerability investigation

THORChain announced that it halted all trading earlier today, March 28th, in a Twitter announcement. “There are claims of a potential vulnerability with a THORChain dependency that may affect THORChain. Out of an abundance of caution, trading has been paused while an investigation is undertaken. The validity of the claim is currently being assessed and verified. All funds can be verified at https://viewblock.io/thorchain/vaults…. Updates will come when available.”

There are claims of a potential vulnerability with a THORChain dependency that may affect THORChain.
Out of an abundance of caution, trading has been paused while an investigation is undertaken.
The validity of the claim is currently being assessed and https://t.co/6a5NLAqefN…

— THORChain (@THORChain) March 28, 2023

As the announcement mentioned, the team is still unsure whether the network vulnerability is real, how severe it is, and how it might be used, but it is not willing to take any chances. The announcement came quickly after social media got flooded with reports that the liquidity platform Nine Realms, which runs on THORChain, as well as the THORSec security team, received “credible reports” of the vulnerability. THORChain reacted by halting the network globally.

**THORChain Globally Halted**@ninerealms_cap and THORSec have received credible reports of a potential vulnerability affecting @THORChain. Out of an abundance of caution, steps have been taken to halt THORChain globally.

Stand by for more information.

— Pluto (9R) ⚡️?? (@Pluto9r) March 28, 2023

However, while the severity of the flaw is still unknown at the moment, that did not stop THORChain’s native token Rune from thumbling by about 5% after the network was halted. The token’s price went down by about 18% in the last 30 days, leaving it at its current price of $1.32.

THORChain had to halt its network two times earlier

As for THORChain itself, it was created in 2018, intended to act as a decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol. It allows users to swap various assets between different blockchains. The main benefit is that they can do so without having to use crypto exchanges.

At the moment, THORChain’s settlement layer allows swaps between eight different blockchains. This includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cosmos, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Dogecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.

Another thing to note is that the current halt of THORChain was not an isolated incident. The network was also paused six months earlier, in October 2022. At the time, it also had a software bug that allowed non-determinism between individual nodes, according to reports from that time.

The network was down for about 20 hours before the developers managed to fix the issue and bring it back up. Even before that, THORChain experienced another issue in 2021, when it also had to halt the network, this time because of a security breach. The network was hacked, and the attackers managed to steal $7.6 million in digital assets.

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