THORChain and Chainflip compared

Why compare them at all

For many pairs both protocols quote a price, and the better one changes from minute to minute. Aetheria shows both, ranked on what arrives after every fee, and says when a source did not answer. Neither is always cheaper or always faster.

THORChain

THORChain swaps through liquidity pools paired with its own asset, RUNE. From Ethereum, BNB Chain, Base and Avalanche, Aetheria lets you sign the swap in your wallet, through the THORChain router this site has verified.

The minimum is written into the transaction memo, and THORChain compares it with what you receive after its outbound fee: below it, the swap is refunded instead of executed.

Some swaps are split over time into smaller parts (streaming swaps). The time shown is THORChain’s own estimate and can be longer.

Chainflip

From Bitcoin, Solana and other chains, Chainflip opens a deposit address for your swap: you send from any wallet. Aetheria shows the address only after Chainflip itself confirms where it pays out, where it refunds and at what price.

From Ethereum and Arbitrum, the swap can instead be signed in your wallet through Chainflip’s Vault contract.

Chainflip protects a minimum price, applied before its deposit and payout fees. Aetheria therefore shows two figures: the protected minimum before those fees, and an estimated minimum after them, which is not guaranteed.

Refunds

Both protocols refund a swap that cannot meet the price you accepted, to the refund address or wallet you used, minus the fees already spent on the way. A swap can also be partly executed and partly refunded; the status page shows both transactions.