Fees

THORChain uses multiple fee types (Inbound, Liquidity, Affiliate, and Outbound) to ensure fair value exchange and network sustainability.

Fees in THORChain serve three purposes:

• Value capture: Liquidity providers are compensated in proportion to the demand placed on pool liquidity. See the Fees dev docs for full information.

• Access control: Slip-based fees naturally throttle demand for scarce liquidity. In practice, this effect is moderated by:

  • Streaming Swaps, which split large swaps into smaller chunks to reduce single-block pressure.

  • L1SlipMinBps (Mimir), which enforces a minimum slip (bps) per swap.

• Resource costs: Outbound fees cover destination-chain gas and protocol overhead using a dynamic multiplier (OFM).

Additional benefits

• Spam/dust resistance: minimums and slip floors make abuse economically costly.

• Stable UX expectations: users see predictable fee components rather than raw external gas volatility.

• Long-term sustainability: fee design reduces reliance on emissions alone. See Incentive Pendulum for how fees and rewards adjust to balance liquidity and security.

Fee overview

Fee Type	What it covers	Where it’s paid / taken
Inbound Fee	Source-chain L1 transaction fee for sending funds into THORChain	Paid directly by the user to the source chain’s miners/validators (wallet-controlled gas)
Liquidity Fee	Slip-based swap fee that compensates LPs, proportional to liquidity demand	Deducted by the protocol during the swap (from the output)
Affiliate Fee	Optional integrator fee (0–10,000 bps) tied to a THORName	Skimmed on swap (see dev docs for ordering with Streaming Swaps)
Outbound Fee	Destination-chain gas × dynamic multiplier (OFM ~1–3×), which also covers protocol overhead	Deducted from the swap output; includes the THORChain network component

Transactions on the THORChain chain itself (e.g., native RUNE or trade-asset transfers) incur the Native Transaction Fee of 0.02 RUNE. See Fees dev docs.

Inbound Fee

When you initiate a swap, you broadcast a transaction on the source chain and pay that chain’s normal L1 fee (e.g., sats/byte on Bitcoin, gwei on Ethereum). Using a “fast” gas setting is recommended so the swap isn’t delayed or refunded due to stale pricing. See Inbound Fee.

Liquidity Fee

THORChain’s CLP model applies a slip-based fee that scales with the amount of liquidity your swap consumes relative to pool depth—this compensates LPs and naturally throttles demand. In practice, two protocol features shape this effect:

• Streaming Swaps: large swaps are split over time to reduce single-block pressure and improve execution for patient swappers.

• L1SlipMinBps (Mimir): enforces a minimum fee in basis points per swap, ensuring a floor even when pools are very deep.

For the slip math and derivations, see the Fees dev docs and Continuous Liquidity Pools.

Affiliate Fee

Interfaces can include an optional affiliate fee (in basis points) that’s collected via a registered THORName. See the Affiliate Fee dev docs for information, and how to configure preferred payout assets.

Outbound Fee

To deliver your final asset, THORChain pays gas on the destination chain and charges an Outbound Fee from your swap output. This fee:

• Covers actual L1 gas and protocol overhead.

• Uses a dynamic Outbound Fee Multiplier (OFM) that moves between ~1× and 3× based on network and protocol factors.

• Is published via THORNode endpoints so integrators can budget precisely.

For implementation details, see the Outbound Fee dev docs.

Gas observation & process

Mechanics for gas observation, estimation, solvency checks, and per-chain behaviors are handled by Bifrost and its Chain Clients. Refer to those pages for internals and per-chain specifics.