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What Is THORChain in Gem Wallet?

What Is THORChain?​

THORChain is a decentralized cross-chain liquidity network. It swaps native assets between blockchains, for example real BTC to real ETH, without wrapped tokens or bridges. Gem Wallet sends your deposit to THORChain with a memo that tells it what to swap and where to deliver.

When you swap, Gem Wallet asks all supported swap providers for a quote at once and picks the best one. THORChain is used when it gives the best quote for your pair, or when you choose it yourself under Providers on the swap screen. To see which provider a swap uses, open Details on the swap screen. See How to Select a Swap Provider in Gem Wallet.

Supported Networks​

Gem Wallet uses THORChain for cross-chain swaps between: Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Avalanche C-Chain, Base, Solana, TRON, XRP Ledger, Cosmos Hub, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dogecoin, Zcash, and THORChain (RUNE).

Assets: Each network's coin, plus selected stablecoins and tokens on Ethereum, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Base, and TRON.

note

A pair only appears when the provider returns a live quote for it. Liquidity, amount limits, and route availability can change at any time.

Zcash Swaps​

THORChain's Zcash vault now uses a TEX address (a transparent-only Zcash address format). Gem Wallet supports sending ZEC to it, so ZEC swaps through THORChain work from Gem Wallet's transparent Zcash addresses. Update Gem Wallet if ZEC to THORChain quotes fail to send.

How the Deposit Works​

THORChain swaps native assets by deposit. Gem Wallet sends your asset to the protocol's vault on the source network with a short memo that says what to swap to and where to deliver it, for example =:ETH.ETH:0x1f90â€Ļc326. On Ethereum and other EVM networks, the deposit goes through the protocol's router contract and expires if it can't be processed within 24 hours. On Bitcoin-style networks, the memo is stored in an extra data output of the transaction. You can see the memo on the source network's explorer.

The payout arrives as an incoming transaction from one of the protocol's vault addresses on the destination network. A refund arrives the same way on the source network.

danger

THORChain rotates its vault addresses regularly, and Gem Wallet asks for the current one with every quote. Never copy a vault or router address from an old swap and send funds to it manually, and never send to it without the correct memo. Funds sent to an old vault, or without a valid memo, may be lost. Always start a new swap from the Swap screen.

Refunds​

If THORChain can't complete your swap, for example because the price moved below the minimum you'll receive, it refunds the deposit to your source address on the original network, minus network fees. THORChain refunds usually arrive within minutes, but can take longer when a network is busy.

Track a THORChain Swap​

  1. Open the swap in Activity.
  2. The status shows Pending while THORChain completes the swap, then Completed, Refunded, or Failed.
  3. Open the transaction details and use the RuneScan link to follow the swap on runescan.io.

For what each status means and how long to wait, see What Do Cross-Chain Swap Statuses Mean?. If the swap was refunded, see What Does a Refunded Cross-Chain Swap Mean?.

Need Help With a Swap?​

Contact Gem Wallet support from Settings > Support in the app, and include the transaction ID of your swap. Before you share anything, read What Information Is Safe to Give Wallet Support?.

warning

Gem Wallet support will never send you a direct message first, ask for your Secret Phrase or private key, or ask you to send funds to "fix" a swap. Anyone who does is a scammer.