The RUNE token in Thorchain is used to link a liquidity pool of tokens from two different blockchains. In order to create ETH and BTC liquidity pools, two pools linked to RUNE will be formed: ETH-RUNE and RUNE-BTC. The first step when anyone tries to swap ETH for BTC is to swap the ETH tokens to RUNE tokens, and then those tokens are swapped to BTC to complete the exchange.
Now let us see if there is correlation between RUNE token price and the volume of transactions happening on ThorSwap. The following chart plots RUNE token price on X-axis and a cluster of ThorSwap transaction volume on y-axis. As you see the transaction volume has been significantly higher when the RUNE token price is 8$ or higher. Also the max swap volume of 45 Million transactions was observed when the RUNE price at at its peak!
Here is another view of RUNE price and ThorSwap volume for the past 6 months. As you see in the chart, the price of RUNE token tracks the transaction volume of ThorSwap!