THORChain's RUNE token rose over 15% in 24 hours while the wider market lost $160 billion in capitalization. Hackers have used THORChain to move stolen funds, and the activity coincided with higher network fees and swap volumes. RUNE now faces a price barrier at $0.70.
THORChain's native token RUNE rallied by over 15% in the last 24 hours as the broader market lost $160 billion in capitalization. The decline followed Binance's hack, in which the exchange lost around $6.30 billion.
Hackers route stolen funds through THORChain
Hackers have regularly used THORChain to launder funds stolen from the crypto market. Funds from the Binance hack were commingled to a similar address that received $388 million from the Bitget incident after arriving via THORChain, which might suggest the same actor is likely responsible.
The swap volumes and fees on the chain have increased significantly. Fees hit a weekly high of $11K, and swap volumes showed $62.08 million going through the mainnet, while $94 million passed through its bridges in other wallets. Of the hack proceeds, $8.94 million was converted to Bitcoin, Ethereum took $6.17 million, and other tokens were swapped for $1.18 million.
The daily trading volume of RUNE surged by over 393% amid that activity.
Users question THORChain's response
However, users are still worried that the chain could be abetting the laundering of funds. Other chains, such as Arbitrum One, froze the funds, but THORChain did not. Immediately after the incident, THORChain posted: "Digital money needs digital freedom."
The source says THORChain did not support the hack directly, but the language and timing of the post raised many concerns.
RUNE stalls at $0.70
On the charts, RUNE rose from $0.58 to $0.723, but it could not stay above $0.70 for long. The brief dip below $0.60 came immediately after the hack, and the altcoin reclaimed that level as the floor. The $0.70 resistance has held for the past month.
Meanwhile, the MACD bars turned green and grew bigger, and the Chaikin Money Flow rose from -0.04 to 0.31. Even so, RUNE will remain in a bearish structure on the 4-hour chart unless $0.70 turns into support. Otherwise, the altcoin could keep bouncing between $0.60 and $0.70, with a chance of a breakdown.
Source: AMBCrypto
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