Continuous Liquidity Pools (CLP) Deep Dive

The Continuous Liquidity Pool is the core innovation that allows THORChain to offer native cross-chain swaps without order books or wrapped assets.

How CLP Works

Every pool consists of RUNE paired with an external asset. THORChain docs describe slippage as the input size relative to pool depth, then use that slippage to derive the liquidity fee and final output:

slip = x / (X + x)
fee = (x^2 * Y) / (x + X)^2
output = (x * X * Y) / (x + X)^2

Where x is the input amount, X is the input-side pool depth, and Y is the output-side pool depth. The slip ratio is not itself the fee amount; the fee is denominated in the output asset.

Key Properties

Quoteable through pool depth: CLP pricing can produce a quote across available pool depth, but execution still depends on current halt state, quote limits, outbound fees, recommended minimums, and refund rules.
Progressive slippage: Larger trades pay proportionally more, protecting LPs from manipulation.
Historical single-sided products: Savers previously offered single-asset exposure, but official archived docs now mark Savers and Lending as deprecated.

If a swap limit is not met, the amount is below the recommended minimum, fees exceed the practical output, or a relevant chain/trading/signing control is halted, the transaction can be refunded or remain unavailable. Treat swap availability as live/current-only, not as a static property of the CLP formula.

Comparison to Traditional AMMs

Unlike constant-product AMMs (Uniswap v2 style), CLP's continuous nature and RUNE as universal settlement asset creates unified liquidity across supported chains. Current chain availability should be checked from live inbound-address and pool status, not from a hard-coded chain count.