RUNE, the native token of decentralized cross-chain exchange THORChain, is under pressure. On the daily chart, the token is down nearly 60% from May highs and remains flat even as the broader cryptocurrency market recovers.

Even if RUNE is not growing, there is a certainty that prices may raise in the coming days, mainly due to fundamental factors and the efforts of the development team.

THORChain revenues rise after swap fee hike

In a post on X, one of the analysts excellent that THORChain nearly doubled its revenue in the past two days after the community decided to raise the minimum swap fee on the decentralized exchange (DEX).

Recently, THORChain node operators approved and implemented a proposal to raise the swap fee for native tier-1 exchanges to 0.05%. This seemingly minor change, as the analyst notes, had a significant impact on the THORChain protocol, increasing daily revenue by almost 100%.

Interestingly, the analyst noted that while protocol fee increases tend to negatively impact user experience, they had the opposite effect on THORChain. While the exchange fee increased, users were not discouraged. Instead, exchange volume stabilized, while the average fee for each transaction increased.

With the raise in transaction fees, weekly liquidity fees on THORChain now exceed the block reward, which is a significant milestone for the DEX. Interestingly, a significant change in revenue generation will further raise the RUNE burn rate when ADR 17, a community proposal, is implemented in the coming days.

The more RUNE is withdrawn from circulation, the rarer the token becomes, which drives up prices. After the implementation of ADR 17, the protocol will buy and burn RUNE worth $1 for every $10,000 in revenue generated. Therefore, increasing revenue due to swap fee increases means more RUNE will be burned.

RUNEPool Impact on Liquidity: Will RUNE Cross $5?

In delayed July, THORChain also introduced RUNEPool to support further encourage liquidity provision. Users can freely deposit their RUNE via THORSwap and THORWallet interfaces into a pool of diverse tokens via this feature.

In this way, they support reduce the risk of impermanent losses while increasing liquidity. As of August 9, over 3.7 million RUNE have been deposited by 265 liquidity providers on RUNEPool.

Despite these changes, RUNE remains under massive selling pressure, although it is stable at the time of going to press. After a bearish breakout in early August that pushed prices below July lows, the token has been struggling. However, if there is a rebound from spot rates to July highs around $5, the coin could rise to over $7.50.