Like other protocols, THORChain first issued and distributed tokens on other chains to fund development while THORChain's own chain was in development.
In THORChain's case, it issued two tokens on other chains: BNB.RUNE on Binance Chain, and ETH.RUNE on Ethereum. This made RUNE available for purchasing & trading before THORChain's own chain went live in early April 2021.
BNB.RUNE and ETH.RUNE both hold the same value as THORChain's native THOR.RUNE, and they allow traders to speculate on the value of RUNE inside each respective ecosystem.
But BNB.RUNE and ETH. RUNE are not functional in the THORChain ecosystem. In order to earn yield on RUNE in THORChain by providing liquidity or bonding a node, holders of BNB.RUNE and ETH.RUNE must upgrade their RUNE to the native THOR.RUNE.
Buying native THOR.RUNE is similar to swapping for any asset on THORSwap or any other THORChain-powered exchange. (We'll use THORSwap in this example).
To buy THOR.RUNE, simply connect your crypto wallet at https://app.thorswap.finance/, select the Swap feature and Swap your crypto assets into RUNE.
While the number of cryptocurrencies available on THORChain is constantly growing, not all currencies are currently supported. You can only choose from the list of Active currencies, not those in the Pending list.
In the example below, our imaginary user, Chris, wishes to Swap his BTC into THOR.RUNE
To do this, Chris selects the Swap button, then on the following page he drags the slider to his desired Swap amount and then clicks Swap... It's that easy!
BNB.RUNE is a BEP2 Token which lives on the Binance Chain. The easiest place to buy BNB.RUNE is on the Binance exchange.
To do so, you must have an account with Binance, however, creating an account is free and rather easy.
Simply head to the official Binance website https://www.binance.com to get started.
ETH.RUNE is an ERC-20 Token which lives on the Ethereum Chain.
Like BNB.RUNE, ETH.RUNE is (generally) pegged to the value of native THOR.RUNE, giving hodlers in the Ethereum ecosystem the ability to trade and speculate on the value of RUNE.
Plus, as an ERC-20 token, ETH.RUNE can be used in the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem - wallets, exchanges, borrow/lending protocols, and more.
The easiest place to buy ETH.RUNE is by swapping Ethereum currency "ETH" into RUNE using SushiSwap.
To do this, simply go to the official SushiSwap website (https://sushi.com) and connect your ETH wallet, then select "Swap", type in "RUNE" in the "Select a token" option and then select the ERC-20 RUNE Token.
Alternatively, you can simply enter the ERC-20 RUNE address. The ERC-20 ETH.RUNE address is: 0x3155ba85d5f96b2d030a4966af206230e46849cb
Once entered into the search bar when selecting a token, you will see RUNE available for selection to swap.
3 simple ways to buy RUNE, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.
With native THOR.RUNE, hodlers can earn yield by participating in the THORChain ecosystem as liquidity providers as node operators.
Whereas with BNB.RUNE and ETH.RUNE, hodlers in the Binance and Ethereum ecosystems can get exposure to RUNE while leveraging the Binance and Ethereum DeFi ecosystems, respectively.
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