THORChain (RUNE) token is flashing a bearish signal, forming a bearish flag pattern

THORChain (RUNE) was trading at $1.3050 on Friday, down 82% from its November peak. It is hovering near its lowest level since November 2023 and remains 90% below its all-time high.

THORChain (CRYPTO: RUNE) token is flashing a bearish signal, forming a bearish flag pattern that suggests further downside even as trade volume soars.

What Happened: THORChain's RUNE was trading at $1.3050 on Friday, down 82% from its November peak. It is now trading close to its lowest level since November and remains 90% below its all-time high.

RUNE has seen a steep decline despite third-party data showing that the network recently had one of its best weeks ever.

According to the data from DeFiLlama, swap volume on the platform surged 640% over the past seven days to $3.3 billion, making it the sixth-largest player in the decentralized exchange industry. For instance, Balancer (CRYPTO: BAL) is the fifth-largest DEX with a volume of $3.6 billion.

Additional data from TokenTerminal showed that weekly active addresses on THORChain quintupled to 5,000, up from this month’s low of 1,000.

However, this surge in activity was linked to the recent Bybit hack. According to Arkham, Lazarus Group transferred over $240 million of ETH through the network. The group laundered the stolen ETH by converting it to Bitcoin (BTC).

ALERT: LAZARUS LAUNDERING THROUGH THORCHAIN - MINIMUM $240M SO FAR

Over $240M of ETH has been sent through Thorchain by Lazarus-tagged wallets on Arkham.

These funds have mainly been swapped for native BTC. pic.twitter.com/C1EYtj6aFw

— Arkham (@Arkham__HQ) January 27, 2024

The spike in volume comes as THORChain is facing some key challenges. In January, the crypto firm paused Ethereum and Bitcoin lending after its liabilities shot up to over $200 million.

On Friday, Pluto, a core developer in the network, announced his resignation after a vote to block North Korean hacker-linked transactions failed.

This move could delay or prevent any action by U.S. authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation to freeze the remaining funds. Earlier this week, the FBI confirmed that Lazarus Group was behind the Bybit hack.

Why It's Important: The weekly chart shows that THORChain's price has been in a steep downtrend since peaking at $7.50 in December. The decline followed the formation of a head and shoulders pattern, a well-known bearish reversal indicator.

RUNE has now fallen below the 50-week and 25-week Exponential Moving Averages, as well as the key support level at $2.5560, its lowest swing from September 2023.

Now, RUNE is forming a bearish flag pattern, a typical bearish continuation signal. A further breakdown could be confirmed if the price drops below the critical support level at $0.7790, its lowest point in 2023.