THORChain hits kill switch to retire Rune tokens on Ethereum and BNB Chain

THORChain, a cross-chain decentralized exchange, has begun the process to phase out the use of rune tokens issued on Ethereum and BNB Chain. THORChain is its own blockchain that allows users to swap assets across seven blockchains.

A Monday post from the team informed the community of its plans to phase out two rune-pegged tokens, referred to as ETH.RUNE and BNB.RUNE. These are variants of THORChain’s native asset rune, that were issued on Ethereum and BNB Chain.

Earlier this year, the THORchain team found these tokens had unnecessary "privileged access to THORchain's state machine," which it identified as a potential security issue. This prompted the team to remove these tokens on third-party chains and restrict the use of rune only on its mainnet.

With the objective of retiring these above tokens, THORChain activated what it called a kill switch at block #6500000.

This is a network function that will slowly reduce the 1:1 redemption rate of ETH.RUNE and BNB.RUNE against native rune tokens over the next 12 months. Following the kill switch, investors can still swap to rune but at a diminishing redemption rate.