Bridges exist to connect different networks, allowing the transfer of information, data and assets between them. They are protocols that enable communication between blockchain ecosystems, improving scalability and interconnection.
Cross-chain technology encourages quicker transaction processing times and immediate token exchanges, becoming an essential feature of web3 developments.
This article ranks the best 9 cross-chain bridges that will rule 2023.
What is a Cross-chain bridge?
They are protocols that can put communication between two isolated blockchain ecosystems, facilitating interconnection between blockchains through transferring information, data and assets.
There are several types of bridges: custodial, non-custodial, unidirectional, bidirectional, cross-chain and multi-chain.
Best Cross-chain Bridges
THORChain is one of the most popular cross-chain bridges. Its a settlement layer that facilitates swaps between different chains, and it is secured by its native token, RUNE.
It aims to empower users to move throughout the crypto economy without relying on centralized intermediaries, allowing swap assets without relying on wrapped tokens. It also provides liquidity and maintains custody, insuring liquidity providers against impermanent loss after 100 days. There is no additional risk compared to holding both paired assets. But as we can read on its website, swaps are just the beginning; new blockchain integrations and features, including synthetic assets, are planned.
THORchain supported blockchain networks - 8
THORchain supported cryptocurrency tokens - 25+
CryptoYou is the first HyFi cross-chain swap built on the Yanda protocol.
It allows intra-chain and cross-chain swaps from Ethereum to all major blockchain networks.
This swapper has very important features, making it one of the best cross-chain bridges:
No debt issuer/custodian contract;
Reduced slippage risks;
Overcome liquidity issues using CEXs liquidity with intelligent routing;
One of the cheapest cross-chain fees;
Fixed withdrawal fees. No hidden cost;
Guarantees transparency over off-chain transactions.
The most important reason for preferring CryptoYou over other platforms is surely liability identification, a very important feature in the blockchain industry that swappers do not have.
Visit CryptoYou.io for more information.
CryptoYou supported blockchain networks - 119
CryptoYou supported cryptocurrency tokens - 236
Multichain is the ultimate Router for web3. It is an infrastructure developed for arbitrary cross-chain interactions. Its goal is the communication between different and diverse blockchains, guaranteeing a way to exchange value and data between blockchain networks.
It is an open-source blockchain network based on the principle of trustlessness. It comprises SMPC nodes run by different organizations, institutions, and individuals and is incentivized to perform their functions properly. Anyone can use its services that are controlled by code.
Its functioning is based on locking up assets in an MPC smart contract on the source chain and minting procedure on the target chain (corresponding wrapped assets). The wrapped asset is burned and then released back to the source chain (this is the redeeming, the reverse process).
The Router V3 is its latest version, launched for the first time on June 2021. It allows:
Asset transfers between chains;
Using liquidity pools for assets;
No restrictions to return assets to their source chain before being sent to another chain, making for a cost-effective solution for users;
The inclusion of assets that might have been generated with a third-party bridge (the so-called bridged assets).
Multichain also supports a bridge for NFTs with the ERC721 and ERC1155 standards.
Multichain supported blockchain networks - 74
Multichain supported cryptocurrency tokens - 1000+
cBridge is a cross-chain token bridge that allows users to transfer assets between different blockchain networks. It is designed to increase the interoperability and flexibility of different blockchain networks, providing a wonderful experience with deep liquidity for users and easy-to-use liquidity management for its own nodes and external Liquidity Providers. It has developer-oriented features such as general message bridging for cases like cross-chain DEX and NFTs.
One of the main features of cBridge is its ability to incentivize LPs and arbitrageurs to rebalance liquidity cross-chain thanks to the flexible liquidity mining mechanism and the AMM bonding curve.
Overall, cBridge is a powerful tool that creates a more interconnected and seamless ecosystem for decentralized applications and services.
Cbridge supported blockchain networks - 22
Cbridge supported cryptocurrency tokens - 28
The Cross-Chain Bridge is a liquidity-pool-based and security-focused bridge, with a community-governed bridging protocol.
The innovative feature of Cross-Chain Bridge, in addition to bridging both fungible and non-fungible tokens, is its interoperable Smart Contracts for cross-chain calls. The goal is that third-party developers can interact with the bridging Smart Contracts in any of their dApps, for any use case. Only to mention one, you could use your Binance Smart Chain tokens on a Polygon DEX.
The unique features of Cross-chain bridge are:
Flexible deposit and claim approach
Limited hack risk compared with bridges with minter roles
Bridged collections for NFTs
70+ supported blockchain networks
Reward pools
Multi-signature validation
Security focuses on architecture with internal and external audits
Cross-chain bridge supported blockchain networks - 5
Cross-chain bridge supported cryptocurrency tokens - 28
Avalanche bridge
Avalanche bridge is a cross-chain interoperability solution that allows the transfer of assets between different blockchain networks.
It is built on the Avalanche network, which is a high-throughput, low-latency blockchain platform that is designed to facilitate rapid transaction processing and enable decentralized applications. The Avalanche bridge enables the transfer of tokens and assets across different blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Avalanche itself.
The bridge provides a secure and efficient way to move assets across chains, ensuring that users can access a wider range of DeFi applications and liquidity pools without having to worry about the limitations of a single blockchain network. It also helps to increase the liquidity and accessibility of assets, which can help to drive the growth and adoption of decentralized finance.
Avalanche bridge supported blockchain networks - 3
Avalanche bridge supported cryptocurrency tokens - 23
Synapse is an interoperability protocol that allows secure cross-chain interactions thanks to its generalized cross-chain communication, an optimistic security model, and Synapse Bridge.
It is a multichain bridge connecting different blockchains through a cross-chain messaging protocol that can support smart contract calls and assets. This protocol allows developers to create decentralized applications such as lending platforms, margining systems, derivatives markets, yield aggregators, and DEXs.
Its functioning comprises a messaging framework and a method to reach a consensus on the validity of cross-chain transactions. It supports 19 blockchain networks, including base layers, roll-ups, or application-specific chains.
The main pillars of Synapse’s vision are:
Security
User experience
composability
Synapse supported blockchain networks - 17
Synapse supported cryptocurrency tokens - 13
Hop Exchange is based on Hop Protocol, a useful method that helps users to exchange tokens between Ethereum scaling solutions with the easiest user experience for moving assets. Hop currently supports the transfer among five blockchain networks: Ethereum, Polygon, Gnosis, Optimism, and Arbitrium.
Hop protocol operates effectively by leveraging “The Bonder”, which provides liquidity and earns rewards. Technically, a user will send several tokens to bonders on the source chain. Suddenly, the Bonder will send the asset to the user’s counterpart on the destination chain. To prove that the Bonders have sent the required tokens, the Hop protocol employs a particular type of token called hToken, which acts as a technique to ensure that all transactions are correctly recorded. These tokens can cross several chains, such as Ethereum to L2 protocols, and vice versa.
The unique features of Hop Protocol are:
Scalable roll-up to a roll-up token bridge, through Automated Market Makers (AMMs) to swap each bridge token among each roll-up to have dynamically priced liquidity and incentivize the rebalancing of liquidity across the entire network;
Two-pronged strategy to generate cross-network tokens, and by utilizing AMMs.
Hop exchange supported blockchain networks - 5
Hop exchange supported cryptocurrency tokens - 7
According to the official definition, Stargate.finance is a fully composable liquidity transport protocol that lives at the heart of Omnichain DeFi. Using Stargate, you can transfer native assets cross-chain while accessing the protocol’s unified liquidity pools with instantly guaranteed finality built on top of LayerZero.
Its native governance token is STG, in the official documentation, you can read the allocation and tokenomics of STG.
Stargate.finance aims to resolve the most common issues that a large number of bridges have on the market, using unified liquidity, sharing the access of one single liquidity pool between different chains using its Delta algorithm (a novel resource balancing algorithm that leverages unified cross-chain liquidity to enable a new class of cross-chain bridge that deals purely in native assets while still maintaining instantly guaranteed finality) which manages all deposit funds in a soft partitioned way. Another important goal is the guaranteed finality of receiving the desired asset on the destination chain.
Stargate.finance supported blockchain networks - 8
Stargate.finance supported cryptocurrency tokens - 14
Conclusion
This ranking was drawn up based on stringent parameters such as
Security protocols (lack of hacks or trivial attacks);
Number of supported chains;
Number of supported cryptocurrency tokens;
Transaction speed.
There are other good cross-chain platform, both in terms of the number of transactions per second and TVL, but as history taught us, they have not been completely reliable or have been hacked; for this reason, they have been excluded from the list. Among the top bridge hacks, we must remember Wormhole, Ronin, Nomad, Multichain (formerly AnySwap), and Horizon bridge by Harmony.
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