THORChain has deployed its v3.20 upgrade, restoring trading on BNB Chain, Base and Solana while bringing the network closer to activating Zcash and Monero. The upgrade also introduces an experimental Stable Reserve and activates new controls for protocol-owned liquidity. The release marks an important step in THORChain’s recovery following a May exploit that forced the network to halt several functions.
THORChain v3.20 goes live Tuesday 8/25 at ~14:00 UTC
Zcash and Monero move closer to activation, BNB, Base and Solana trading resumes, and churn comes back on the network. Plus two new pieces of the protocol’s economics: POL mimirs go operational, and the Stable Reserve ships.…
— THORChain (@THORChain) August 24, 2026
The network suspended trading after a multi-chain exploit on May 15 drained approximately $10.8 million from one of its Asgard vaults. The attack exploited a vulnerability involving the GG20 Threshold Signature Scheme and compromised one of six Asgard vaults.
The losses affected assets across Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain and Base. THORChain’s protocol-owned liquidity absorbed the losses, while its automatic solvency detection system and node coordinators halted trading, signing and churn operations to protect the remaining vaults.
Version 3.20 includes fixes aimed at addressing chain-specific, solvency and security issues that had kept BNB Chain, Base and Solana trading offline. Trading on those networks is expected to resume progressively following the upgrade.
The upgrade also restores churn, an important part of THORChain’s network operations. Churn allows the protocol to rotate its active vaults and node sets, helping maintain the network’s security and operational structure.
Support for privacy-focused networks is also moving forward. Work on Monero was included in version 3.19, while v3.20 adds further infrastructure for key generation, signing, vault rotation, transaction observation and recovery. Zcash support is also progressing under the latest release.
One of the more notable additions is the experimental Stable Reserve. Eligible stablecoins can be exchanged directly against protocol-owned stablecoin inventory rather than going through the usual RUNE-based liquidity pools.
When enough inventory is available, the Stable Reserve can complete an eligible stablecoin-to-stablecoin swap at a 1:1 rate, with no liquidity fee or slippage. Normal outbound network fees still apply. If the reserve cannot complete a transaction, the swap falls back to the standard liquidity pools.
The feature also includes safeguards that can stop the use of a stablecoin if it becomes unhealthy and redirect inventory towards other stablecoins or RUNE. The Stable Reserve was shipped disabled by default.
The upgrade also expands THORChain’s handling of ERC-20 tokens. The MorpheusAI MOR token has been added to the Ethereum token list and Base allowlist, while Memoless Swaps have been expanded to ERC-20 assets.
Protocol-owned liquidity is another area receiving an operational boost. Introduced earlier, POL allows part of the system’s income to be placed into a reserve and deployed as RUNE liquidity in selected pools. Version 3.20 makes two POL-related Mimirs operational, giving node operators greater control over how that liquidity is deployed.
Security improvements are also included. They cover encryption of TSS keyshare files, changes to seed-phrase handling, longer signer-cache expiry and the removal of the temporary Keyverify subsystem.
The upgrade is therefore more than a routine software release. It is a major rebuilding step for THORChain after the May security incident, restoring core cross-chain activity while introducing new liquidity and economic features.
For RUNE and the wider THORChain ecosystem, the key test now will be whether the restored network can regain trading activity and user confidence while maintaining the stronger security measures introduced after the exploit.
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