Network Halts

Warning

If the network is halted, do not send funds. The easiest check to do is if halted = true on the inbound addresses endpoint.

Info

In most cases funds won't be lost if they are sent when halted, but they may be significantly delayed.

Danger

In the worse case if THORChain suffers a consensus halt the inbound_addresses endpoint will freeze with halted = false but the network is actually hard-halted. In this case running a fullnode is beneficial, because the last block will become stale after 6 seconds and interfaces can detect this.

Interfaces that provide LP management can provide more feedback to the user what specifically is paused.

There are levels of granularity the network has to control itself and chains in the event of issues. Interfaces need to monitor these settings and apply appropriate controls in their interfaces, inform users and prevent unsupported actions.

All activity is controlled within Mimir and needs to be observed by interfaces and acted upon. Also, see a description of Constants and Mimir.

Halt flags are Boolean. For clarity 0 = false, no issues and > 0 = true (usually 1), halt in effect.

Halt/ Pause Management

Each chain has granular control allowing each chain to be halted or resumed on a specific chain as required. Network-level halting is also possible.

  1. Specific Chain Signing Halt - Allows inbound transactions but stops the signing of outbound transactions. Outbound transactions are queued. This is the least impactful halt.
    1. Mimir setting is HALTSIGNING[Chain], e.g., HALTSIGNINGETH
  2. Specific Chain Liquidity Provider Pause - addition and withdrawal of liquidity are suspended but swaps and other transactions are processed.
    1. Mimir setting is PAUSELP[Chain], e.g., PAUSELPBCH for BCH
  3. Specific Chain Trading Halt - Transactions on external chains are observed but not processed, only refunds are given. THORNode's Bifrost is running, nodes are synced to the tip therefore trading resumption can happen very quickly.
    1. Mimir setting is HALT[Chain]TRADING, e.g., HALTBCHTRADING for BCH
  4. Specific Chain Halt - Serious halt where transitions on that chain are no longer observed and THORNodes will not be synced to the chain tip, usually their Bifrost offline. Resumption will require a majority of nodes syncing to the tip before trading can commence.
    1. Mimir setting is HALT[Chain]CHAIN, e.g., HALTBCHCHAIN for BCH.
  5. Specific Pool Liquidity Provider Pause - suspends deposits into a specific Liquidity Pool
    1. Mimir setting is PAUSELPDEPOSIT-<Asset>, e.g., PAUSELPDEPOSIT-BTC-BTC for BTC pool

Warning

Chain specific halts do occur and need to be monitored and reacted to when they occur. Users should not be able to send transactions via an interface when a halt is in effect.

Network Level Halts

  • Network Pause LP PAUSELP = 1 Addition and withdrawal of liquidity are suspended for all pools but swaps and other transactions are processed.
  • Network Pause Lending PAUSELOANS = 1 Opening and closing of loans is paused for all loans.
  • Network Trading Halt HALTTRADING = 1 Will stop all trading for every connected chain. The THORChain blockchain will continue and native RUNE transactions will be processed.

There is no Network level chain halt setting as the THORChain Blockchain continually needs to produce blocks.

A chain halt is possible in which case Mimir or Midgard will not return data. This can happen if the chain suffers consensus failure or more than 1/3 of nodes are switched off. If this occurs the Dev Discord Server #interface-alerts will issue alerts.

Warning

While very rare, a network level halt is possible and should be monitored for.

Secured Asset Halt Management

  1. Global Secured Asset Halt - Disables deposits and withdrawals of all secured assets across base and App Layers.
    1. Mimir setting is HaltSecuredGlobal, set to 1 to disable all operations.
  2. Specific Secured Asset Deposit Halt - Disables deposits of secured assets in base and App Layer for the specified chain.
    1. Mimir setting is HaltSecuredDeposit-<Chain>, e.g., HaltSecuredDeposit-ETH = 1 disabled deposits for ETH-ETH and all ERC20 secured assets.
  3. Specific Secured Asset Withdrawal Halt - Same as HaltSecuredDeposit-<Chain> except for Secured Asset Withdrawal.
    1. Mimir setting is HaltSecuredWithdraw-<Chain>, e.g., HaltSecuredWithdraw-ETH =``, set to 1to disable;0` to enable.

Smart Contract Halt Management

Smart contract halts, introduced in v3.2.0 (February 2025), control CosmWasm contract execution in the App Layer. These halts pause specific or all contract activities during vulnerabilities, ensuring network security. Interfaces must monitor these settings and prevent unsupported actions.

  1. Global Smart Contract Halt - Disables all CosmWasm contract executions in the App Layer. Used for critical vulnerabilities or network-wide issues.
    1. Mimir setting is HaltWasmGlobal, set to 1 to disable all contracts; 0 to enable.
  2. Contract Code Halt - Disables all instances of a specific CosmWasm contract by its code checksum. Targets contract code with known issues.
    1. Mimir setting is HaltWasmCs-<checksum>, e.g., HaltWasmCs-4UMPB3SYCM6Z5WRT5DINB66N462U5VVQVDOIFKMP5G55WKRR7VDA disabled smart code with the checksum 4UMPB3SYCM6Z5WRT5DINB66N462U5VVQVDOIFKMP5G55WKRR7VDA.
  3. Specific Contract Halt - Disables a single CosmWasm contract instance by its contract address address suffix (last 6 characters). Isolates a specific contract instance.
    1. Mimir setting is HaltWasmContract-<address suffix>, e.g., HaltWasmContract-w58u9f, disabled the smart contract with a contract address ending in w58u9f.

TCY Management

Claiming and Staking of $TCY can be enabled and disabled using flags.

  • TCYClaimingSwapHalt: Enables/disables RUNE-to-TCY swaps in the claiming module (default: 1, halted).
  • TCYStakeDistributionHalt: Enables/disables distribution of RUNE revenue to TCY stakers (default: 1, halted).
  • TCYStakingHalt: Enables/disables staking of TCY tokens (default: 1, halted).
  • TCYUnstakingHalt: Enables/disables unstaking of TCY tokens (default: 1, halted).
  • TCYClaimingHalt: Enables/disables claiming of TCY tokens for THORFi deposits (default: 1, halted).

Trade Accounts

Trade Accounts Pause TradeAccountsEnabled = 1 - Adding to and withdrawing from the Trade Account is enabled.

Monitoring Mimir Keys

curl https://thornode.thorchain.org/thorchain/mimir
  • Integration: App Layer interfaces must poll Mimir settings to detect halts and adjust functionality
  • Alerts: Subscribe to Dev Discord #interface-alerts channel for updates

Quick Reference Table

KeyDescriptionScopeEffect
HALTSIGNING[Chain]Stop outbound tx signing on chainChainOutbound txs queued, no tx broadcast
PAUSELP[Chain]Pause LP add/withdraw on chainChainLPs cannot add/remove liquidity
HALT[Chain]TRADINGHalt trading on a specific chainChainOnly refunds allowed, no new swaps
HALT[Chain]CHAINFull halt on a chainChainChain not observed, Bifrost offline
PAUSELPDEPOSIT-<Asset>Pause LP deposit on specific asset poolPoolDeposits disabled for the asset pool
PAUSELPPause LP actions globallyGlobalAll pools pause LP adds/removals
HALTTRADINGHalt all tradingGlobalNo swaps across any chain
HaltSecuredGlobalDisable all secured asset txsGlobalDisable deposits/withdrawals of all secured assets
HaltSecuredDeposit-<Chain>Disable secured deposits on chainChainNo secured asset deposits allowed
HaltSecuredWithdraw-<Chain>Disable secured withdrawals on chainChainNo secured asset withdrawals allowed
HaltWasmGlobalHalt all CosmWasm contractsGlobalDisable contract execution
HaltWasmCs-<checksum>Halt contract code by checksumContract CodeDisable all instances of matching contract code
HaltWasmContract-<address>Halt specific contract instanceContractDisable one specific contract
TCYClaimingSwapHaltHalt TCY claiming swapGlobalPrevent RUNE→TCY swaps
TCYStakeDistributionHaltHalt TCY staking rewardsGlobalStops TCY revenue distribution
TCYStakingHaltHalt staking of TCYGlobalDisable TCY staking
TCYUnstakingHaltHalt unstaking of TCYGlobalDisable TCY unstaking
TCYClaimingHaltHalt TCY claimingGlobalPrevent TCY claims from THORFi deposits
TradeAccountsEnabledEnable/disable Trade AccountsGlobalAllow/disallow Trade Account usage