THORChain Restarts DEX Trading 38 Days After $10.8M Vault Exploit

THORChain has brought its decentralized cross-chain exchange back online after a pause of more than a month triggered by a $10.8 million vault exploit. In a June 23, 2026 update, THORChain said trading is live again and the network has fully resumed operations. Core functions including signing, churning, secured and trade assets, liquidity-provider actions, and swaps are now running. The platform had shut down following a cross-chain attack that drained crypto assets across several ecosystems, including Base, BNB Chain, Ethereum and Bitcoin. After the incident, THORChain's governance halted signing and trading to limit further damage while node operators investigated. The native token RUNE/USDT fell as much as 12% in the wake of the exploit. THORChain enables users to swap native assets across chains without relying on centralized intermediaries or wrapped tokens, but the breach intensified scrutiny of its security. With services now restored, the project is aiming to rebuild confidence, saying it prioritized security and correctness over speed during the recovery. THORChain also pointed to roadmap progress. Developers and node operators coordinated fixes, with native Monero (XMR) swaps completing end-to-end testing ahead of launch and Zcash (ZEC) integration confirmed. The project said it views the restart as a milestone as it works to reinforce its position as a Bitcoin-focused DEX.