The Kujira team is going to build a new THORChain application layer following the ‘Rujira’ integration.

Decentralized financial (diff) network Kujira and several of its major ecosystem projects have agreed to join forces in a body called the “Rujira Alliance” to build a new application layer of the cross-chain liquidity protocol THORChain.

The new application layer is not only “another small project”, but one day Solana's rival, THORChain founder Jon-Paul Thorjornsen – who goes by the name “JP THOR” – will be a new DeFi “behemoth” – claimed in a September 10 X post.

Torbjornsen told Cointelegraph that the new project will have a “combined repository” and that he will be the project's lead for the foreseeable future, allowing the Kujira team to focus solely on building the Rujira application layer.

“RUJIRA allows THORChain to launch a secure, well-managed and well-functioning DeFi application layer to become the leading DeFi chain.”

The new application layer will feature products for every major DeFi vertical, including order books, perps, token launchpads, intangible tokens (NFTs), lending and money markets, he said. ”

THORChain has “solved” the maximum leveraged value (MAV) problem by “splitting revenue between consensus and liquidity,” Thorjornsen said, meaning there is no MEV on THORChain, which he says is a “much better” user experience.

Kujira has merged with three of its “key ecosystem” partners – Fusion, Unstake and Wink – with a new application layer powered by a new token called RUJI.

Since the integration into RUJI will be completely voluntary, the integration will not affect Kujira's existing KUJI token or the functionality of the project's blockchain network.

The controversy of Kuji August

Kujira was marred by controversy on August 2, when the founding team said it was facing a series of liquidity problems stemming from “exploiters, social engineering attacks and failures in its ecosystem.”

At the time, its native KUJI token dropped 70% in 24 hours. It is now trading at $0.38, down 13% on the day. According to CoinGecko, KUJI has fallen more than 91% from its high of $5.56 on December 13 last year.

Related: THORChain hits $10B monthly volume as Bitcoin maxis argument security.

THORChain's native RUNE (RUNE) token rose as much as 8%, jumping from $3.60 to $3.89, following the announcement of the new application layer.

THORChain is a layer-1 blockchain and decentralized exchange (DEX) focused on facilitating the exchange of assets on layer-1, which are otherwise generally siloed. It was launched in June 2022 and is built on Cosmos-SDK and Tendermint.

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