THORChain has halted all activities on its network following fears of potential security vulnerabilities. The Cross-chain liquidity protocol wrote on Twitter on 28 March that it had halted trading because of issues with a THORChain dependency that may affect the network.

This is coming on the heels of social media reports suggesting that the network’s liquidity platform Nine Realms, and its dedicated security team THORSec, received “credible reports” of a potential vulnerability affecting THORChain.

**THORChain Globally Halted**@ninerealms_cap and THORSec have received credible reports of a potential vulnerability affecting @THORChain. Out of an abundance of caution, steps have been taken to halt THORChain globally.

Stand by for more information.

— Pluto (9R) ???? (@Pluto9r) March 28, 2023

A Precautionary Measure

The decision to halt trading on the THORChain network was precautionary, only until investigations are completed. Nine Realms in a tweet wrote that “Network preemptively paused by NO’s to investigate the report; updates will follow.”

There has been no report of missing funds or loss of customer data, but investigations are ongoing to get to the root of the matter. THORChain is a critical protocol that facilitates the swapping of assets across blockchains without having to use a centralized exchange.

With swaps for top crypto assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Chain, Avalanche, Cosmos Hub, Dogecoin, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash supported, such a vulnerability could cause a major problem if it is allowed to escalate.

Vulnerabilities in Crypto Networks

Vulnerabilities in crypto protocols and networks have become commonplace, with THORChain itself having suffered one before. The protocol had in October 2022 halted trading as a result of a software bug.

A more recent vulnerability problem is that of USDC that caused the stablecoin to de-peg from the USD, making the price to slide to new a low of $0.87.