Introduction
Rujira: Building the Omnichain DeFi rails for Humans and Machines
Enter the Omniverse
Welcome to Rujira, the powerful App Layer on THORChain with an integrated suite of DeFi tools and dapps, accessible with native assets from all connected chains. As an introduction, we would like to share some background on what we stand for, and what makes us unique.
Cockroaches
We are committed, long-term builders: we survived the Terra crash in 2022, we survived the KUJI liquidation cascade in 2024, and we survived the THORFi blow up in 2025. No matter the challenge, we always find a way and keep building. This has allowed us to create one the most resilient and passionate communities in crypto ❤️
Change
Overzealous regulators in the US, lacking vision and clarity, have created pockets of darkness in the industry enabling some operators to act like big casinos, allowing scammers to lurk. This is a far cry from a productive crypto sector supporting new financial instruments, democratization of assets’ ownership and enabling innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence.
The new US administration gives us a chance to build real products for real people, generating real value. With the hope that improved clarity on regulations will allow these DeFi products to be accessed outside of a pure crypto space.
Eventually, we hope to see the next generation of business owners using our launchpad to raise money to e.g. open a restaurant. Then launch a DAO to manage the board transparently and benefit from real time accounting and professional-grade reporting, at a fraction of the cost of running a traditional business. Crypto can only win if it moves beyond crypto.
No bullshit, real value
Enter the Omniverse. A place where everything comes together, a unified ecosystem where all the different chains, wallets, and DeFi products converge into something bigger. We are not playing the short-term hype game. We are building the omnichain DeFi rails for humans and machines, with a sustainable economic model for the decades to come. All products across our comprehensive DeFi stack charge some protocol fees which are 100% distributed in USDC to RUJI stakers (net of the share of revenue going to THORChain Base Layer). Owning RUJI is owning a share of all economic activity happening on the App Layer.
Built different
From great challenges emerge incredible opportunities. Building the App Layer on top of THORChain’s technology gives us some unique edges:
We can tap into THORChain's deep liquidity, which fixes one of Kujira's biggest historical challenges: liquidity bootstrapping.
We can remove all dependency to third party bridges and wrapped tokens, enabling access to DeFi with native assets from all connected chains.
In particular, we can become the cornerstone of BitFra, providing access to DeFi with native BTC and capitalizing on the next wave of institutional and governmental BTC adoption.
Our apps are natively omnichain, accessible from all connected chains, all at once and via any supported wallet.
Building the Rujira App Layer provides us with a unique opportunity in software development. We get to greenfield something we had already built and fix literally every issue we have seen over the years with Kujira. Truly satisfying.
Drilling down - what makes Rujira unique
1. DeFi with native assets
No third-party bridges or wrapping by centralised intermediaries.
The only place where you can trade native BTC, but also native assets from all other connected chains, in an orderbook DEX; take a loan against native BTC; have a stablecoin backed by native BTC, etc.
2. Comprehensive DeFi suite in a Unified UI
Orderbook DEX, AMM, Perps, Money Market, BTC-backed stablecoin, Liquidations, Launchpad, NFT Marketplace, Options, AI Agents.
No need to navigate between different websites for each application.
New “Optimistic block commitment” tech that pre-compute the new chain's state, virtually giving a zero second block time and real time UI.
Provide a CEX-like experience, but 100% decentralized.
Accessible from a dedicated mobile app (Station).
Accessible from a ChatGPT-like AI interface.
3. Highly integrated ecosystem (circular)
Because we control the full stack, everything works together as a seamless ecosystem.
The AMM adds liquidity to the orderbook DEX.
The money market provides leverage for regular CDP loans and margin trading.
The liquidation engine protects all debt related products (loans, CDP stablecoins, margin trading).
The liquidity of THORChain Base Layer is virtualized via an AMM arbitrage strategy tapping into liquidity from the money market.
The liquidity in the orderbook backstops the liquidation bids via an AMM strategy.
All revenues generated flow to RUJI stakers (net of Base Layer share).
4. Rujira is omnichain
Builders will be able to deploy once on Rujira and make their app available from all connected chains and wallets.
As a user, connect your Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, etc. wallets and you will see your aggregated balances appear across all apps, and you will be able to trigger transactions from any connected chain, regardless of where your assets are.
5. THORChain liquidity removes liquidity bootstrapping risk
We will virtualize the Base Layer liquidity via an arbitrage market making strategy, allowing us to execute taker orders against TC ~$130m liquidity.
You can easily make your own estimates for spot trading revenue for volumes executed against the Base Layer as follow: Revenue = TC liquidity * Avg Daily Utilisation Ratio * 365 * 15 bps taker fee.
Historically, THORChain Average Daily Utilisation Ratio has been at ~0.49x and Kujira was at ~0.11x; most DEXs are typically in the 0.1-0.3x range.
For volumes executed against Base Layer liquidity, each $1 of volume on the App Layer = ~$1 of volume of the Base Layer, which generates fees for TC, which means 100% of the revenue on the App Layer side is sent to RUJI stakers.
We expect the growth in other products in the next few years - notably Perps, BTC-backed stablecoin and launchpad - will reduce the share of revenue coming from spot trading, reducing the reliance on Base Layer liquidity.
6. Scaling with the proven TC Affiliate Fee model
We will replicate the very successful TC affiliate fee model; allowing third parties to integrate with all the Rujira apps and monetize by charging a fee on top of protocol fees.
Aiming to integrate with SwapKit and all the majors TC affiliates (TrustWallet, Ledger Live, Bitget wallet, etc.).
Getting Started
Before exploring the App Layer on THORChain, take the time to understand how Rujira and RUJI came about, how it works by building on top of THORChain by first reviewing:
If you are looking to build on Rujira (P.S. We Love You), then you can go straight to Getting Started and the Development Process in the Developers section.
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