Overview
THORChain will provide a 17,500 RUNE bounty for the best open-source arbitrage bot that can arbitrage between the following three pairs on Binance DEX:
RUNE:BNB
BNB:BUSD
BUSD:RUNE.
Competition End Date: 13 May 2020
- First Prize: 10,000 RUNE
- Second Prize: 5,000 RUNE
- Third Prize: 2,500 RUNE
Competition Purpose: To promote community development of open-source arbitrage platforms on RUNE markets.
Recommended Frameworks:
- Python: https://github.com/binance-chain/python-sdk
- Javascript: https://github.com/binance-chain/javascript-sdk/wiki
- Golang: https://github.com/binance-chain/go-sdk/wiki
The bot should be able to:
Import wallet keys locally
Compare markets, log trade opportunities
Open and close orders to take trade opportunities
Log a running PNL
Judging Criteria:
- Open-source
- No compilation errors, clean, readable code.
- Can import wallet and execute trades
Bonus Points:
- Tests, Logging, PNL statement
- LocalHost UI dashboard (simple)
- Actually makes a profit
Point Of Contact: Admins in THORChain telegram community.
Competition Take-away: The community should take the chance to learn and build a simple bot that can find and take action on arbitrage opportunities. This will enable more users to become sophisticated market participants and will enable ASGARDEX to be supported by more entities who can maintain liquidity.
Arbitrage on THORChain
There are three user-types in THORChain:
Users who need liquidity (swappers)
Users who can provide liquidity (stakers)
Users who can maintain liquidity (traders)
Maintenance of ASGARDEX pool liquidity is done by profit-seeking entities who simply try to buy low and sell high between two markets. They contribute to the system by transferring information from one market to another.
Importantly: the system does not care which market is correct, or what is actually the correct price.Once all profit-seeking entities have finished pushing and pulling on the market, then the final price must be the correct one. In reality, the market continually receives new information about an asset, and is perpetually converging to the correct price.
This raises an important question — how often should an asset price change? In an illiquid market, an asset price can change rapidly, however, has new information about that asset actually been published to warrant that price change — or is the price change “incorrect” and instead market participants should wait for it to “correct” back?
An example of this is 12 March 2020, when Bitmex order books imploded and the price of Bitcoin on that market theoretically could have gone to $0, if it were not for Bitmex’s “circuit-breaker”. Had information about Bitcoin been published that warranted Bitcoin to be valued at $0 — or was it just simply an inefficient, illiquid market?
THORChain seeks to return “price inertia” to assets. That is, asset prices in its pools cannot rapidly change price. The more impatient traders become, the more they have to pay in slip-based fees to liquidity providers. This transfers assets from the impatient to the patient, deepening liquidity and slowing price changes down. THORChain uses its own pools to provide both price information but also as liquidation mechanisms. This means it only cares about the information in its own system, and everything else is just “noise”. Over time, THORChain’s pools will become so deep they will instead force the entire market to slow down and inherit price inertia.
Arbitrage Basics
As an example, if the price of the asset in a THORChain pool (primary market) is $1.20, but the same asset on a different (secondary) market is $1.00, then someone can buy off the secondary market and sell into the THORChain pool profit.
How much profit is simply a question of liquidity.
Infinitely deep liquidity
If both markets are infinitely deep, then the following will occur:
Secondary Market, Buy: $1.00, no price slip.
Primary Market, Sell: $1.20, no price slip.
Total Profit: 20%
The trader can then continue to arbitrage for a profit of 20% continuously.
Finite, but mismatched liquidity
If both markets have finite liquidity, but one is much deeper than the other, then the one of the markets will slip in price after the trade. However, the trader will experience a price that is roughly the average of the price before and after the trade:
Secondary Market, Buy: $1.00, no price slip.
Primary Market, Sell: $1.20, realised price of $1.10, price slip to $1.00.
Total Profit: 10%
After the trade, there is no more price differential, but the trader made 10% in profit. The trader has made the pool price equal to the secondary market. They have transferred price information from one market to another.
Low liquidity
If both markets have low liquidity, then the trader is attempting to make trades that slip each market towards each other:
Secondary Market, Buy: $1.00, realised price of $1.05, price slip to $1.10.
Primary Market, Sell: $1.20, realised price of $1.15, price slip to $1.10.
Total Profit: >10%
The market now has no more price differential. The trader has made each market equal to each other.
THORChain Community
To keep up to date with the project, please monitor community channels, particularly Telegram, Discord and Twitter:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/thorchain_org
- Telegram Community: https://t.me/thorchain_org
- Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/thorchain
- Discord: https://discord.gg/V6pNp8A
- Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/thorchain
- Github: https://github.com/thorchain
- Medium: https://medium.com/thorchain
Related articles
![]()
May. 14, 2026
Explanation of the 6 Preset Strategies to Help Create Your CCL Strategy
![]()
May. 13, 2026
The Casino Problem: When Crypto Forgets What It Was Built For
![]()
May. 12, 2026
THORChain Protocol Upgrade v3.18
![]()
May. 11, 2026
Dash is coming to THORChain
![]()
May. 8, 2026
Monero Merged, Reserve Burn, Marketing Update | Podcast #196
![]()
May. 7, 2026
Marketing Update: Feb - March 2026
![]()
May. 5, 2026
RUJI Staking Rewards Are Live, Earn Real Protocol Revenue on Rujira
![]()
May. 4, 2026
Bior Labs Cards Are Imminent: Bill Pay, $10K Virtual Cards and a Stablecoin Alpha
![]()
May. 2, 2026
Live from Bitcoin Vegas: 2 bps Stable Swaps, v3.18 Next Week and the Affiliate Revshare Plan
![]()
Apr. 30, 2026
THORChain Quarterly report - Q1 2026
![]()
Apr. 29, 2026
bRUNE Staking Cap Increased to 2 Million, How to Stake, and Earn THORChain Yield
![]()
Apr. 28, 2026
Protocol Upgrade - v3.17.0
![]()
Apr. 27, 2026
Unstoppable: The Best Privacy Wallet – THORChain Mobile Interface
![]()
Apr. 24, 2026
THORChain Stands for a Permissionless and Decentralized Ethos
![]()
Apr. 23, 2026
Custom Concentrated Liquidity: Where Liquidity Becomes Strategy
