THORChain halts ZEC swaps after bug triggers RUNE deductions

THORChain has paused native Zcash swaps after a bug cut into the bonds of the operators who run its network. Onchain records show about 140 RUNE deducted from 18 node accounts. The protocol says no user or vault funds were lost. The people who absorbed the damage were the node operators, which is roughly the outcome a bonded security model is built to deliver. What broke, and who paid The trouble traced back to how THORChain matches outbound ZEC transactions. An outbound transaction is the protocol sending coins back out of its vaults to a user once a swap settles, and that matching step is where the bug sat. Something in that process went wrong, and the network treated it as a vault slash, penalizing the nodes responsible for it. The incident occurred around October 19, 2026. The penalty came out of bonds, the RUNE that node operators lock up as collateral for the privilege of running the network. Swappers came out clean. THORChain stated that user and vault funds were untouched, so anyone holding liquidity or trading through the protocol did not lose money because of this. ZEC swaps will stay frozen until a fix arrives in the v3.21 network upgrade. That upgrade is expected around...