THORChain [RUNE] is a proof-of-bond network that is operated autonomously by anonymous operators. In a blog post dated 4 February, THORChain informed its users of the network’s intention to deprecate its IOU tokens (BNB.RUNE and ETH.RUNE) after its launch on the mainnet.

According to THORChain, the reason for the deprecation was to prevent “3rd party dependencies” (BNB Chain and Ethereum) as it preferred “to manage everything in-house.”

Since its launch on the mainnet on 22 June, the network has commenced swapping the IOU tokens for its native RUNE. In a tweet shared on 18 July, THORChain informed its users that its killswitch “will be activated at block 6,500,000,” after which “upgrades will no longer be 1:1. Exchange rates will linearly tick down to 1:0 over the next 12 months.”

Essentially, the IOU tokens will have no value in 12 months. Following the announcement, the network’s native token, RUNE, saw its price rise. What else happened?

Following 18 July’s confirmation from THORChain that its killswitch will be activated, its native taken RUNE rallied to a high of $2.61. With a price jump from $2.27 per RUNE token to $2.61, the network’s native token logged a 14% growth.

However, in the last 24 hours of press time, the bears have pushed back, thus forcing a downward correction in price.

Exchanging hands at $2.58 at the time of writing, RUNE posted 2% gains in the last 24 hours. Increased trading activity has also been underway. The token’s trading volume grew by 79.17% over the day.

On a daily chart, a steady increment of RUNE was spotted. The token’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Money Flow Index (MFI) were 58 and 73, respectively, at the press time.

Investors have gradually filled their crypto portfolios with RUNE