- Thorchain made progress on the DeFi front as volume surged to a new milestone.
- RUNE got stuck in varying price performance.
It’s always exciting to see how a blockchain network grows during the bear market. Thorchain [RUNE] is the latest blockchain to follow that path, as it celebrates a new growth milestone for its ThorWallet DEX.
Realistic or not, here is RUNE’s market cap in BTC terms
According to the official announcement, the total volume of Thorchain’s ThorWallet DEX recently surpassed the $200 million milestone. This means that the DEX has been growing at a healthy pace.
Notably, this performance occurred at a time when the market was leaning more in favor of the bears, or rather, the bulls were struggling.
BREAKING NEWS: @THORWalletDEX breaks the $200 million milestone in total volume!
We thank our amazing community for joining us in this achievement. Stay on the DeFi wave with us!
pic.twitter.com/AXrERs6tAl
— THORWallet DEX
The development indicated that Thorchain was on the right track in terms of adoption. It will be interesting to see how both the ThorWallet DEX and the Thorchain protocol perform once the bull market is in full swing.
RUNE bulls and bears are in a stalemate
Will growing DEX volume in the Thorchain ecosystem impact its native cryptocurrency, RUNE? The latter qualifies as one of the most bullish cryptocurrencies of the past four months.
However, the performance in the first two weeks of October was bearish as the price cooled from the previous rally.
RUNE owed its previously bullish performance to confidence driven by the organic growth the network has achieved so far this year. The peak of $2.26 in early October was the highest price level it has reached so far in 2023.
The press time price of $1.65 represented a 27% discount from the aforementioned peak.
Source: TradingView
RUNE has been trading sideways for the past few days, and this is quite significant. It either means that the bears have lost momentum or that RUNE holders are unwilling to sell below the press time price level.
The latter suggested that traders were still very optimistic about RUNE’s future prospects at the time of writing.
On-chain data showed that RUNE is still in a low volume phase at the time of writing, which was in line with the sideways price action. This was also reflected in the USD open interest per exchange, which was at its lowest point in the last 30 days.
This was a sign of the prevailing directional uncertainty.
Source: Santiment
Is your portfolio green? Check out the RUNE Profit Calculator
While RUNE was going through its slow phase, the Thorchain Network has something different to offer. Development Activity in the network has increased, especially since the beginning of October. At the time of writing this, it was at its highest level in the past four weeks.
Source: Santiment
The rising development activity could help restore confidence among traders, potentially benefiting the bulls.
