THORChain — Integration of Avalanche C-Chain Complete

Published in

THORChain

4 min readOct 4, 2022

Avalanche C-Chain native asset swaps are now available. Users can now add liquidity and make swaps to and from Bitcoin, Ethereum, and six other base layer protocols. Pangolin DEX is completing an aggregator to trade AVAX C-Chain assets directly to/from native assets on THORChain.

Introduction:

THORChain’s integration with Avalanche C-Chain brings the total number of connected blockchains to Eight (8):

Bitcoin
Ethereum
Binance Beacon Chain
Bitcoin Cash
Litecoin
Dogecoin
Cosmos Hub
Avalanche C-Chain

What does the Avalanche C-Chain Integration Mean?

Avalanche C-Chain users can now swap in and out of the Avalanche ecosystem without the use of bridges. Users interested in exchanging their Avalanche C-Chain assets for other crypto assets can easily do so at any THORChain interface.

Users can also provide liquidity to THORChain’s pools and earn a yield from every swap that takes place in the liquidity pool.

Can I swap Avalanche C-Chain assets?

Besides native AVAX, the following Avalanche C-Chain ERC-20 assets are whitelisted assets on THORChain:

USDC (0xB97EF9Ef8734C71904D8002F8b6Bc66Dd9c48a6E)
USDT (0x9702230a8ea53601f5cd2dc00fdbc13d4df4a8c7)

AVAX.USDC and AVAX.USDT will become active for trading on THORChain at the next available pool churn. Pool churns occur approx. every 3 days and enable the deepest staged pool with over 10,000 RUNE in liquidity. Liquidity deposits are immediately available to the staged AVAX.USDC and AVAX.USDT pools (~1 week).

Additional AVAX assets can be whitelisted to be listed on THORChain directly by issuing a pull request on Gitlab. Other Avalanche C-Chain assets without liquidity on THORChain can use the aggregator feature to access deep liquidity pools, executing cross chain swaps in a single transaction by automating the use of multiple swap providers to provide best-in-class price execution on any asset.

Using Aggregators to Swap Other Avalanche C-Chain Assets in One Click

THORChain has an aggregator feature that simplifies the user experience of a swap. Swapping from native assets supported on THORChain to long-tail assets supported on other protocols is simpler than ever. Users can access liquidity on a range of decentralized exchanges (DEXs) through THORChain’s DEX aggregation feature. Any DEX can create an aggregator, integrate their liquidity, and make native asset swaps simple for their users.

Pangolin DEX is building the first Avalanche C-Chain aggregator that enables swaps to or from any supported asset using the Pangolin Avalanche C-Chain liquidity pools and THORChain’s native asset pools.

*By using THORChain’s aggregator,* ***any long tail ERC-20 can be swapped with any Avalanche C-Chain asset with one user transaction,*** *using THORChain liquidity pools and aggregated liquidity pools from other DEXs like Pangolin.*

THORChain aggregators are permissionless — any THORChain frontend, DEX, or Wallet can integrate cross-chain liquidity aggregation to give users access to long-tail assets at low cost. Popular interfaces such as THORSwap and Defispot have plans to implement Avalanche C-Chain liquidity aggregation as soon as it becomes available.

Where can I swap or add liquidity?

Swap on any THORChain Interface:

THORSwap
Defispot
THORWallet
Pangolin DEX (coming soon)

Using any supported wallet:

Metamask (including Ledger support)
XDEFI Wallet
THORWallet (iOS / Android)
Keystore
Ledger

Why swap native assets instead of bridging assets between chains?

Bridged assets present custodial risk. Bridges are services that maintain custody of assets on one chain and issue a debt asset on another chain, commonly referred to as a wrapped asset. Usually, bridges are controlled by a small number of trusted organizations or individuals. If the collateral held by the bridge is stolen, users cannot redeem their wrapped assets for the underlying native asset. For this reason, it is always more risk averse to hold native assets on the corresponding blockchain network, rather than holding a wrapped asset on another blockchain.

I am a developer. How can I use native asset liquidity on THORChain for my app?

Developers can integrate native asset swaps in their app and drive revenue by collecting affiliate fees from each swap. Wallets and DEXs should consider implementing THORChain for their users, who would gain access to native asset liquidity worth millions in USD. DEX aggregators should make use of THORChain’s native asset liquidity to integrate into their own services.

XChainjs is a useful open source library to get started integrating THORChain. Integration info can be found on dev.thorchain.org and support can be requested in the THORChain developer discord.

Summary

Avalanche C-Chain has been integrated into THORChain for native asset swaps without the need for bridging
AVAX is immediately accessible for swaps and liquidity deposits
USDC and USDT are immediately available for liquidity deposits. Swaps will be available after 2 pool cycles (~1 week)
The DEX Aggregator can be used to swap to/from any THORChain supported asset to any Avalanche C-Chain asset
Pangolin DEX is integrating their Avalanche C-Chain pools into the THORChain DEX aggregator