Rujira Weekly Recap – Week 50/2024

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Rujira Weekly Recap, where we share all the interesting things that happened recently!

⚡️Rujira updates

Rujira Fundraising

We have successfully raised $7 million from a group of investors that stepped in early following the merger announcement. With this capital, we are in a strong position to execute our plans without requiring additional funding at this stage. In the future, if necessary, we will be able to access additional funding via OTC deals to further support the growth of Rujira.

The completion of this funding round also removes a key hurdle for the RUJI TGE, which is now anticipated to take place in February next year. As always, this timeline is indicative and subject to change.

THORChain v3.0

We have an exciting week ahead of us as THORChain prepares to launch its major v3.0 upgrade. Scheduled for Thursday, December 12, at 10:15 AM PST, this update includes an upgrade to Cosmos v50, laying the ground to introduce CosmWasm smart contracts in a subsequent upgrade.

Secured Assets will also go live with the v3.0 upgrade. They are the key piece to allow smart contracts to work with all THORChain connected assets.

The upgrade will also enable gRPC connections, laying the groundwork for RUJI Swap, our user interface for THORChain. RUJI Swap will charge a 0.5% affiliate fees (in line with Vultisig) that will eventually be distributed to stakers once the RUJI token is live and staking is enabled.

Other TC Nodes Upgrade

Besides v50, Hans pushed two important upgrades for THORChain Nodes:
1) The Token Factory that will allow minting new tokens on the App Layer.
2) The Token Switch Handler that will allow migrating existing tokens to the App Layer.

This will enable existing Kujira native tokens (e.g. MNTA, NAMI, AUTO) to migrate to THORChain and the App Layer. This will be a one-way operation. Projects will have to get their token whitelisted on Bifrost (via an ADR – THORChain governance proposal) so that TC nodes monitor it, and indicate a dead address to send the old tokens to. Token holders will then need to IBC their tokens to Cosmos Hub (GAIA) and then send them to THORChain. The old tokens will be sent to the dead address (“burn”) and the new ones minted. For example, GAIA.NAMI will become a x/bank denom of THOR.NAMI after the switch.

⚡️Ecosystem news

RUNEStrategy

During a recent Spaces with @alpha_hunt_off, @jpthor shared his vision for RUNEStrategy ($RSTR). Inspired by the work of @saylor and @MicroStrategy, the plan is to create a similar structure centered around RUNE, tapping into the debt and equity capital markets to funnel capital into the THORChain ecosystem. RUNEStrategy will not only benefit from price appreciation (like MicroStrategy with BTC) but also cash flows generated from running TC Nodes, providing liquidity in TC pools and running arbitrage strategies.

The idea has already sparked significant interest, with discussions actively underway. Curious to learn more? The first section of the Spaces provides a detailed breakdown by @jpthor.