THORChain has demonstrated impressive progress amidst the bear market, with several new interfaces added and a steady growth in trading volume over the past three months. Recent website updates, protocol changes, and developments in Savers have contributed to the platform’s evolution. As the protocol matures, Impermanent Loss Protection (ILP) has been sunset, and testing has started on Lending in Stagenet. Additionally, a new regression test framework is in the process of being rolled out.

In Q1 2023, THORChain’s total trading volume reached $1.22 billion, with the highest 24-hour volume at $37.14 million. The platform experienced a 30% increase in liquidity, growing from $93.91 million to $122.23 million. Savers positions surged by 183%, rising from $9.07 million to $25.73 million. Liquidity fees collected amounted to $1.92 million, with 28.44% coming from liquidity fees and 71.56% from block rewards.

The top five swap routes by USD volume were BTC/RUNE, ETH/RUNE, BUSD/RUNE, BTC/ETH, and BUSD/BTC. Trust Wallet, THORSwap, ShapeShift, THORWallet, and XDEFI were the leading interfaces in terms of USD volume, swap count, and liquidity fees produced. Affiliates collected a total of $188.86k in fees.

Several new developments marked Q1 2023 for THORChain. Lending code has been written, merged, and deployed to Stagenet for testing. Developers have successfully opened the first decentralized, overcollateralized BTC loan using native BTC. Code rework, additional reviews, and regression testing are currently ongoing. Both technical and non-technical contributors are encouraged to participate in testing and refining the lending design.

The new regression test framework allows for black-box testing of thornode via real transactions and API endpoint queries. This framework enables easier reasoning around tests and captures more side effects than unit tests, providing high confidence that changes do not break existing functionality. The framework is being used for regular network updates and will be utilized to test the Lending code.

Dynamic Outbound Fee Improvements have been implemented, changing the logic to dynamically adjust the multiplier used to estimate gas fees for outbound transactions. This change should result in a decrease in fees, especially for swaps settled in Ethereum and ERC-20 assets.

Integration updates include developer guides created on the dev docs site and a video guide to facilitate more interface and wallet provider integrations. Trust Wallet has launched their THORChain integration on iOS, supporting cross-chain swaps between BTC, ETH, and BNB Beacon Chain. Since the integration went live on February 7th, Trust Wallet has become the largest THORChain interface in terms of USD volume and daily users performing swaps.

ShapeShift has integrated THORChain Savers vaults into their frontend interface, and the two teams are collaborating to deliver best-in-class products to ShapeShift’s user base. Meanwhile, Impermanent Loss Protection has been grandfathered for deposits made after block 9450000, as it is no longer necessary in the evolving network. Savers Vaults now offer a yield product without impermanent loss, providing a simpler option for end users.

Protocol Owned Liquidity (POL) has been voted to be enabled, with activation planned for early Q2 once the network is ready to begin adding liquidity. With these impressive Q1 2023 achievements, THORChain continues to prove its resilience and capacity for growth amidst challenging market conditions.