THORChain Hit by $10.8M Exploit as RUNE Drops 12%

Following the incident, the project temporarily halted trading operations and node activity.

15.05.2026 - 13:05

2 min

Key points:

THORChain was hit by an exploit with estimated losses of roughly $10.8 million.
The project temporarily suspended trading and transaction signing operations after the attack.
RUNE fell about 12% following the breach, while the investigation into the exploit remains ongoing.

Cross-chain liquidity protocol THORChain suffered a hacker attack that resulted in estimated losses of approximately $10.8 million. The exploit affected deployments across four different blockchains.

After detecting the attack, the project team suspended trading operations and transaction signing functions. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT first reported the incident on Telegram.

According to Arkham Intelligence, wallets linked to the suspected attacker currently hold:

3,443 ETH worth around $7.77 million,
36.85 BTC valued at approximately $2.97 million,
96.6 BNB worth about $66,000.

THORChain’s governance module Mimir triggered an emergency network shutdown. Network nodes were temporarily paused for more than 12 hours starting from block 26190429.

Following the news, the RUNE token dropped by roughly 12%.

Cross-Chain Protocols Remain a Prime Target for Hackers

THORChain is a decentralized liquidity network that allows users to swap native assets across different blockchains without relying on centralized intermediaries.

However, cross-chain bridges and liquidity protocols remain among the most vulnerable sectors in DeFi. According to Chainalysis, losses tied to attacks on such services have exceeded $2.8 billion since 2021.

The issue continues to affect the broader crypto industry. In April alone, restaking protocol KelpDAO and decentralized exchange Drift Protocol suffered combined losses of more than $600 million from separate attacks.

THORChain has not yet released a technical post-mortem or disclosed the suspected attack vector behind the exploit.

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