There are many ways to gain exposure to the growing world of permissionless, cross-chain DEXs today… but it wasn’t always like this.

Let’s rewinThere are many ways to gain exposure to the growing world of permissionless, cross-chain DEXs today… but it wasn’t always like this.

Let’s rewind the clock.

RUNE⚡️

Back in 2019, THORChain introduced $RUNE as a native settlement asset and more. RUNE wasn’t just about capital efficiency. It had three core functions:

• Settlement asset: RUNE is paired with every asset in the liquidity pools to create deep, native liquidity.
• Economic security: Node operators must bond RUNE, creating high-cost economic guarantees.
• Protocol incentives: Liquidity providers and node operators are rewarded in RUNE, aligning incentives across the network.

RUNE launched with a community presale and has a maximum supply of 500 million tokens. Over time, it established itself as the foundation of one of DeFi’s first and most ambitious cross-chain protocols.

Read more on the original distribution

CACAO🍫

Enter Maya Protocol and its native asset: $CACAO. While inspired by THORChain’s design, CACAO came to life with a few key differences:

• Fair launch: No presale, no team allocation. CACAO was distributed via a Liquidity Auction, ensuring wide and fair access.
• Same core functions: Like RUNE, CACAO is used for settlement, node bonding, and protocol incentives.

Supply is capped at 100 million CACAO, making it scarcer by design. Maya’s vision was always to complement THORChain, not compete with it. This was further reinforced by the creation of the CACAO:RUNE liquidity pool, connecting both protocols natively.

Read more about CACAO

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MAYA🍫

With CACAO fairly launched, the Maya team needed a way to fund ongoing development and incentivize long-term contributors. The solution? $MAYA.

• Purpose: MAYA doesn’t secure the protocol; instead, it captures 10% of all swap fees and redistributes them to token holders.
• Supply: Capped at 1 million MAYA tokens.
• Distribution: Shared with early node operators, Tier 1 LPs, Maya Mask holders, and RUNE owners, as a way to reward early alignment.

MAYA was among the first cross-chain DEXs to explore a tokenized revenue-sharing model, paving the way for new incentive structures.

Learn more about the MAYA token
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TCY⚡️

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$TCY is the newest member of this token lineage, combining insights from RUNE, CACAO, and MAYA into a fresh model for decentralized value.

Its purpose? To create a revenue-sharing mechanism for the THORChain ecosystem, while also addressing past challenges.

After the pause of THORFi’s lending and savers programs in early 2025, the THORChain community initiated a multi-phase effort to make claimants whole. The final step was Proposal 6, introduced by Aaluxx, which led to the creation of TCY. A token designed to distribute 10% of THORChain’s protocol income to impacted users.

• On January 24, 2025 (block 19562016), all outstanding ThorFi claims were dollarized.
• These values determined how much TCY each user could claim.
• Since launch, 10% of all protocol income has been directed to TCY stakers.

Beyond that initial function, TCY also offers an opportunity for new holders to get passive exposure to THORChain’s revenue flow—without needing to run nodes or provide liquidity.

Explore the TCY launch details

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Token Comparison Table

To make things clearer, here’s a quick breakdown of the four tokens and what makes each one unique:

The Big Picture

What began with RUNE has evolved into a family of purpose-driven tokens—each one building on the lessons of its predecessor.

The thread connecting them all? A commitment to decentralization, permissionless access, and a better financial system.

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. And in this case, it swaps too.

Resources
ThorChain: Website | Docs | X | Discord
Maya Protocol: Website | Docs | X | Discord

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