THORChain loses nearly $11 million in suspected exploit as RUNE tumbles 13%

Security vulnerabilities continue to challenge THORChain's cross-chain liquidity as another major breach unfolds.

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Add us on Google by Vivian Nguyen May. 15, 2026

THORChain, the decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol that enables swaps between major blockchain networks, appears to have been exploited for approximately $11 million across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Base, according to on-chain investigator ZachXBT.

Trading on the protocol was paused following the incident. The project has yet to respond publicly to reports of the suspected exploit.

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The breach, which surfaced in the early hours of Friday, is at least the fourth major security incident for the protocol in recent years.

The first widely recognized exploit took place in July 2021, leading to losses estimated between $4.9 million and $5 million from liquidity pools. A second major incident followed during the ChaosNet era later that year, when attackers drained approximately 4,000 ETH from Ethereum-linked liquidity before the treasury reimbursed affected funds.

More recently, THORChain suffered another major exploit in 2025, with estimated damages reaching approximately $1.2 million.

RUNE dropped approximately 13%, falling from $0.58 to $0.5, per CoinGecko.

This is a developing story. We’ll update as we learn more.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.