Blockchain analytics and security firm Elliptic has shown that criminals operating in the crypto ecosystem explore decentralized solutions in more ways than is known.
Through its latest report titled “The state of cross-chain crime report 2022,” the analytics firm confirmed that criminals have laundered the total sum of $4 billion through Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs), bridges, and protocols offering Coin Swaps.
According to Elliptic, the use of these protocols is hinged on the fact that these platforms do not have a strict Know-Your-Customer (KYC) procedure, making conducting transactions, irrespective of their illegitimate status more accessible. By virtue of their design, the decentralized protocols are notably linked with scams, Ponzi Schemes, dark web activities, and ransomware amongst others.
“To be clear, Elliptic is not saying DEXs or bridges are used exclusively by criminals; In fact, the opposite is true. They are mostly used by legitimate users. But Elliptic has traced illicit funds (from hacks etc.) that have been moved through DEXs and bridges in order to obfuscate their origin,” a spokesperson for Elliptic said in a statement.
For the better part of this year, there has been quite a lot of emphasis on the roles being played by cryptocurrency mixing services like Blender.io and Tornado Cash in money laundering activities. Both have been sanctioned by the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on the grounds that they are connected to the North Korean Lazarus Group hacking syndicate.
With this revelation from Elliptic, the clamour for intense scrutiny of decentralized protocols is bound to grow in the coming days. DeFi regulation is top of the agenda for most regulators as the industry offers products that compete with the traditional financial ecosystem.
Without the extant regulations guiding events in the space, regulators believe the implosion experienced in space with the collapse of Three Arrows Capital (3AC), Voyager Digital, and the Celsius Network, amongst others, would have been avoided.
In a Reddit post, Buterin advocated for a multi-chain future but expressed skepticism of cross-chain bridges.
Buterin suggested that bridged assets are more susceptible to security flaws.
He concluded that it is safer to keep custody of a native blockchain’s assets in that same native blockchain than it is to store them on a non-native blockchain.
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Ethereum co-founder and developer Vitalik Buterintweeteda link to a Reddit post today in which he discussed his belief in a multi-chain future, but expressed doubt concerning cross-chain ecosystems.
Cross-chain Vulnerabilities
In his argument, Buterin cited the “fundamental security limits of bridges” as the key reason for his disapproval of a cross-chain environment.
In his explanation, Buterin mentioned that he disagrees with the mentality that all security mechanisms fail if and when a blockchain suffers a 51% attack.The objective of a 51% attack is to manipulate the integrity of the transactions being registered in a blockchain by controlling more than 50% of the network’s mining hash rate or computing power.
Buterin alleged that in the case of a 51% attack, theattacker/s cannot propose a block that takes away someone’s ETH because such a block would violate the consensus rules and would therefore be rejected by the network. In other words, he contended, even if 99% of the hashpower were aligned toward illegally taking away another wallet’s ETH, the nodes would simply follow the chain of the remaining 1% because it is the only set of blocks following the protocol rules. Thus, Buterin claimed, the “honest” blocks would preserve the consistency of the state.
The problem, Buterin argued, emerges when the user bridges assets from their native blockchains to a non-native blockchains. If the native blockchain suffers a 51% attack that reverts the bridge transaction, then as soon as that same transaction gets confirmed in the non-native (destination) blockchain, those assets could be left “orphaned” or “siloed,” therefore leaving the user with a contract that is no longer fully backed in the native blockchain.
Furthermore, Buterin went on to explain that the same principle applies to any Layer 2 that is built on the Ethereum main chain. In this regard, he wrote:
“If Ethereum gets 51% attacked and reverts, Arbitrum and Optimism revert too, and so “cross-rollup” applications that hold state on Arbitrum and Optimism are guaranteed to remain consistent even if Ethereum gets 51% attacked. And if Ethereum does not get 51% attacked, there’s no way to 51% attack Arbitrum and Optimism separately.”
The author goes on to say that using dApps that are interrelated between different chains is where we can witness a “contagion effect” in which a 51% attack can compromise an entire ecosystem. To further justify this idea, Vitalik clarifies that he is in favor of zones of sovereignty in which several native Layer 1 applications interface closely with each other instead of interacting with other blockchain environments.
Buterin concluded by saying that he did not expect these problems to arise immediately, but as the volume of cryptocurrency held in bridges grows, so too will the incentive to attack them.
Disclosure: At the time of writing this article, the author owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.
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The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.
You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.
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Wanchain will build a decentralized bridge between Polygon sidechain and Arbitrum.
The planned bridge will allow transferring funds without the need to use the Ethereum mainnet.
The Wanchain bridge will use liquidity pools to move tokens between two networks.
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Ethereum interoperability project Wanchain will launch a cross-chain bridge between Polygon and Arbitrum.
Wanchain Will Deploy an Ethereum Layer 2 Bridge
Wanchain has entered a strategic partnership with Polygon to create a decentralized bridge between the sidechain and Arbitrum, a popular Layer 2 rollup solution on Ethereum.
In a Tuesday press release shared with Crypto Briefing, the Wanchain team said their planned bridge will allow transfers directly between Polygon and Arbitrum without the need to use the Ethereum mainnet.
Commenting on the planned Polygon-Arbitrum bridge, Li Ni, VP of business development and operations at Wanchain, said:
“Wanchain’s new Layer 2 bridges preserve the high transaction throughput and low costs of Polygon while remaining efficient, versatile and decentralized.”
Wanchain will join other existing multichain bridges on Polygon, including Hop Protocol, AnySwap, Wormhole, Connext, and Celer.
The Wanchain bridge will use liquidity pools to move tokens between two networks. Hop Protocol was the first to deploy a bridge that leveraged liquidity pools for bridging assets between Ethereum, Polygon, and Layer 2 solutions.
Sandeep Nailwal, the co-founder at Polygon, said the cross-chain bridge will “facilitate better liquidity and utility for the Polygon ecosystem.” The Polygon teams boast one of the top scaling projects on Etherereum, consisting of its flagship Proof-of-Stake sidechain and other rollup solutions like Hermez and Miden.
Building a Polygon-Arbitrum will likely help the Wanchain team acquire new users and potentially drive some value for its interoperable tech stack.
In the last year, Polygon has rapidly expanded to a level where it currently supports some of the biggest decentralized applications (dApps) on Ethereum including OpenSea, Aave, SushiSwap, Curve, Balancer, and others. Similarly, Arbitrum is currently the most widely adopted Layer 2 solution on Ethereum that supports about $2.4 billion in total value locked across various dApps.
Wanchain was one of the first interoperability projects to hit the crypto scene. After its initial coin offering in 2017, the project made efforts to position itself as an ETH killer but struggled to find meaningful adoption. Wanchain’s existing cross-chain infrastructure supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, Binance Smart Chain, Litecoin, and XRP Ledger.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH, MATIC, and other cryptocurrencies.
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The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.
You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.
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Wormhole has integrated Polygon to its multi-chain bridging solution.
Multi-Chain Bridge Adds Polygon
Wormhole, a popular multi-chain bridge protocol, has announced support for a new bridge to Polygon—the top sidechain on Ethereum.
On Tuesday, the Wormhole team revealed that starting today users will be able to transfer assets between Polygon and other Layer 1 blockchains like Solana, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), and Terra Network. Polygon is the first sidechain added to Wormhole.
Wormhole’s cross-chain wrapping protocol allows users to send cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens across different chains. The project has $540 million in total value locked in wrapped assets, the team claims.
According to Hendrik Hofstadt, the lead contributor to Wormhole, the project has been executing its “vision of bridging together a more decentralized and resilient network.” Further commenting on Polygon’s integration with Wormhole, Hofstadt said:
“The addition of Polygon brings a diverse set of users and applications to Wormhole, and we’re excited to see how the synergies play out.”
Several interoperability bridges have taken off over the last six months, accompanying the rise of the multi-chain era.
Notably, Wormhole is one of the most widely used solutions for bridging crypto assets to Solana. By supporting a high-value chain like Polygon, it has expanded its capability to connect Solana with a rapidly-growing ecosystem.
The sidechain has over $5.22 billion in total value locked, and hosts some of the top dApps on Ethereum, including Aave, OpenSea, Curve, Balancer, and many more. Since its mainnet launch in May 2020, Polygon has seen over a billion total transactions on its network.
Disclosure: The author owns ETH, MATIC, and SOL.
This news was brought to you by ANKR, our preferred DeFi Partner.
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The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.
You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.
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Wormhole has integrated Polygon to its multi-chain bridging solution.
Multi-Chain Bridge Adds Polygon
Wormhole, a popular multi-chain bridge protocol, has announced support for a new bridge to Polygon—the top sidechain on Ethereum.
On Tuesday, the Wormhole team revealed that starting today users will be able to transfer assets between Polygon and other Layer 1 blockchains like Solana, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), and Terra Network. Polygon is the first sidechain added to Wormhole.
Wormhole’s cross-chain wrapping protocol allows users to send cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens across different chains. The project has $540 million in total value locked in wrapped assets, the team claims.
According to Hendrik Hofstadt, the lead contributor to Wormhole, the project has been executing its “vision of bridging together a more decentralized and resilient network.” Further commenting on Polygon’s integration with Wormhole, Hofstadt said:
“The addition of Polygon brings a diverse set of users and applications to Wormhole, and we’re excited to see how the synergies play out.”
Several interoperability bridges have taken off over the last six months, accompanying the rise of the multi-chain era.
Notably, Wormhole is one of the most widely used solutions for bridging crypto assets to Solana. By supporting a high-value chain like Polygon, it has expanded its capability to connect Solana with a rapidly-growing ecosystem.
The sidechain has over $5.22 billion in total value locked, and hosts some of the top dApps on Ethereum, including Aave, OpenSea, Curve, Balancer, and many more. Since its mainnet launch in May 2020, Polygon has seen over a billion total transactions on its network.
Disclosure: The author owns ETH, MATIC, and SOL.
This news was brought to you by ANKR, our preferred DeFi Partner.
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The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.
You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.
See full terms and conditions.
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Cross-chain bridges on Ethereum have taken off with the rise of the multi-chain era.
There are already multiple bridge services offering a way to migrate tokens between Ethereum and other networks.
As bridges develop, cross-chain interoperability is likely to become an important theme in crypto.
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Bridges offer a way to migrate assets between blockchains. Crypto Briefing unpacks some of the top bridges offering interoperability between Ethereum and other chains.
Ethereum Bridges Usher in Multi-Chain Era
Since crypto’s fabled “DeFi summer” of 2020, cross-chain bridges on Ethereum have exploded in popularity. Fueled by the growing number of DeFi options across various Layer 1 networks and the rising costs of using Ethereum mainnet, the use of bridges to move assets from one network to another has soared.
Today, the leading cross-chain bridges allow Ethereum users to migrate ERC-20 tokens to other networks.
Bridges are permissionless applications that allow users to send tokens and arbitrary data between blockchain networks. By deploying bridge connections, various competing or complementary networks have attempted to capture a portion of the value generated on Ethereum, the most used blockchain for DeFi and NFTs.
Ethereum bridges offer a way to send assets to EVM-compatible networks like Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, and Fantom, as well as non-EVM-compatible networks like Solana and Terra. Ethereum Layer 2 solutions and sidechains also boast interoperability with Ethereum via several bridges.
To bridge tokens from Ethereum to other networks, users deposit assets into a bridge contract deployed on Ethereum mainnet. The same amount of the asset is then minted on the other network. The tokens get burned when the assets are moved back to mainnet, and are then made available on the network.
In theory, all Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks could have a mechanism to send and receive assets from Ethereum to other networks. Sending funds to an EVM-compatible network is a simpler process; users can connect through an Ethereum-based wallet like MetaMask.
When migrating Ethereum-native assets to a non-EVM-compatible chain like Solana, the bridge connecting the two networks uses two different wallet addresses and token standards. This means that users have to connect both an Ethereum and Solana-compatible wallet, such as MetaMask and Phantom.
As the race to capture DeFi and NFT activity has intensified in recent months, multi-chain bridges have begun to play a crucial role in the crypto ecosystem. Solutions like Hop Protocol and Celer Network have proven popular by deploying Ethereum smart contracts that let users transfer assets from mainnet multiple Layer 1 and 2s.
Binance Bridge Binance Bridge is a popular point of entry from Ethereum to Binance Smart Chain, an EVM-compatible blockchain developed by the world’s largest crypto exchange. Through the bridge, ERC-20 tokens are wrapped into BEP-20 assets for use on Binance Smart Chain applications like PancakeSwap, Venus Protocol, MDEX, and Alpaca Finance. Ethereum users can access the bridge by adding Binance Smart Chain to their MetaMask or alternative Web3 wallet. There is currently over$5.78 billionlocked in the Binance Bridge.
Avalanche Bridge
Avalanche is one of Ethereum’s top challengers. It boasts high throughput and offers EVM compatibility with support for Aave, Curve, and Sushi, along with a host of native dApps.
The best way to transfer ERC-20 tokens from Ethereum Avalanche is through the Avalanche Bridge. Similar to Binance Bridge, the Avalanche Bridge can be accessed through MetaMask. Once the assets are bridged, tokens are appended with the symbol “.e.” For example, the bridged USDC token is called USDC.e.
All transfers across the bridge must be approved by three of four trusted partners of the Avalanche Foundation, also known as wardens. There’s currently around $4.8 billion locked into the bridge contract. The Avalanche bridge does not support ERC-721 tokens, so it’s not possible to move NFTs onto the network.
Solana Bridges: Wormhole, Sollet and Allbridge
Solana is arguably the strongest competition to Ethereum’s dominance today. Solana is faster and cheaper than Avalanche, with block times of around half a second. Those who want to send ERC-20 tokens to Solana can use two primary bridges: Sollet and Wormhole.
Tokens sent from Ethereum to Solana are wrapped and minted to the SPL token standard via Wormhole and Sollet, which allows them to be used across Solana dApps. About $265 million is locked in Wormhole, and $217 million in Sollet.
It’s worth noting that tokens that bridge to Solana using Sollet or Wormhole will not be compatible with each other because Sollet-wrapped tokens are different from Wormhole-wrapped versions of the same ERC-20 tokens.
Wormhole is the more popular of the two bridges. Unlike Sollet, it also lets users transfer NFT tokens, whether they were minted as an ERC-721 token on Ethereum or an SPL token on Solana.While the two bridges charge less than a cent for a single cross-chain transaction, Ethereum gas fees are significantly higher.
In addition to Sollet and Wormhole, a multi-chain bridge solution called Allbridge recebtky launched. Using liquidity pools containing more than $1.5 billion in value locked, Allbridge enables token transfers to Solana from Ethereum and other blockchains like Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, and others.
Fantom’s AnySwap Bridge
Fantom is another top contender in the Layer 1 race. Like Avalanche, it operates an EVM-compatible network called Opera that is faster and cheaper than Ethereum mainnet.
Fantom is perhaps the only chain that does not use a 1:1 standalone direct bridge service with Ethereum. Instead, it predominantly uses a multi-chain solution called AnySwap to execute cross-chain transfers across multiple EVM networks. The FantomAnySwap bridge is currently the go-to solution to send tokens from Ethereum to Fantom and vice versa.
As a multi-chain liquidity solution, AnySwap uses pools consisting of specific tokens deployed across multiple chains for bridging. This system allows for tokens to be sent to Fantom from Ethereum, Avalanche, Polygon, and Binance Smart Chain.AnySwap’s Ethereum-Fantom bridge currently holds about $2.1 billion in value locked.
There are currently three other platforms for bridging tokens to Fantom from Ethereum and other chains: multichain.xyz, SpiritSwap, and SpookySwap. These solutions use AnySwap as their backend but have gained popularity by offering user-friendly web interfaces.
Polygon Bridges
Many bridge solutions have also been created to allow for moving ERC-20 tokens to and from Ethereum sidechains like Polygon.
Polygon is the biggest sidechain network that runs parallel to Ethereum. It has experienced parabolic growth over the last year, helped by several Ethereum-native DeFi projects expanding to the network. It currently holds more than $9 billion in total value locked.
The main entry point from Ethereum is via the Polygon POS Bridge. Users can deposit ETH or any other ERC-20 token to Polygon and then send them back to Ethereum mainnet. Deposits typically take a few minutes, while withdrawals back to mainnet take about an hour.
Polygon operates another bridge with Ethereum called Plasma, which is primarily used for withdrawing ETH to mainnet. However, the drawback is that all ETH withdrawals get locked for up to seven days before they can be redeemed on mainnet.
Besides Polygon’s own bridges, Hop Network also allows for bridging ETH and other assets to Polygon. It uses liquidity pools to transfer tokens and has gained traction thanks to its quick deposits and withdrawal times. It usually takes no more than 10 minutes to deposit and withdraw to the bridge.
Layer 2: Rollup Bridges
Optimistic Rollups are off-chain protocols managed by an on-chain Ethereum contract, allowing for cheaper and faster transactions than on Ethereum mainnet. Rollups compute off-chain, but they publish proofs on-chain, so the data can be rolled back to mainnet if there is an issue.
The two leading Optimistic Rollups are Optimism and Arbitrum, which have a combined total value locked of over 2.5 billion. The Layer 2 solutions have soared in popularity as DeFi projects like Uniswap and Sushi have announced plans to launch on the networks.
To access Layer 2, users have to deposit funds into a bridge deployed on Ethereum mainnet, which credits the same funds on the rollup at the same specified address. While deposits to Layer 2 Rollups are finalized in a matter of 15 to 20 minutes, withdrawals have a seven day waiting period.
Thousands of users have already moved funds from Ethereum mainnet to Arbitrum via the Arbitrum Bridge. Moving tokens to Optimism requires using a bridge called Optimism Gateway. The requests for deposits and withdrawals to these Layer 2 rollups can be made through a MetaMask wallet.
As an alternative to the official bridge platforms, multi-chain liquidity solutions like Hop Network and Celer can also be used to make deposits and withdrawals to Arbitrum and Optimismm, with much faster withdrawal times.Both solutions can also make it possible to bridge ERC-20 tokens between two Layer 2 networks without moving to mainnet.
Terra’s Shuttle Bridge
Terra is a rising DeFi hub built using the Cosmos SDK. Popular Terra dApps include Mirror Finance and Anchor Protocol. Terra operates a bi-directional bridge with Ethereum called Shuttle.
The bridge was designed to move Terra-based assets to Ethereum via wrapping, but not the other way around. For this reason, onlywhitelistedassets can be moved back and forth between the two chains. To move funds from Ethereum, users must first convert ETH to Terra-based ERC-20 tokens such as wrapped UST.
As shuttle does not support ETH, there is no way for users to bridge the asset directly onto Terra. However, users can stake ETH on Lido Finance and get staked ETH (stETH), which can be bridged to Terra through Lido’s interface on Anchor Protocol. stETH is wrapped to bETH, which can be used to earn rewards on Anchor.
Other Bridges in Development
Other non-EVM networks like Polkadot and Cosmos are building bridges, but most of them are at a very early stage of development. Cosmos will offer bridge services with the soon-to-launch Gravity Bridge, and there is another bridge being developed by Evmos. Similarly, ChainBridge plans to connect Ethereum to Polkadot’s Moonbeam parachain.
There are many more bridge solutions running or in development. As more Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks hoping to capture some of Ethereum’s market share see their ecosystems develop, bridges look set to make composable interoperability a reality over the coming years.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this feature owned ETH and SOL.
This news was brought to you by ANKR, our preferred DeFi Partner.
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The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.
You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.
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Fantom has surged to new highs as the race to secure a place in the multi-chain future intensifies.
Fantom in Price Discovery
Fantom just hit a new all-time high.
The Layer 1 network has kept up its multi-week rally, topping out at $2.48 Tuesday morning.
FTM/USD chart. Source: CoinGecko
The run to new highs may have been fueled by the launch of a new cross-chain bridge. SpiritSwap, a leading decentralized exchange on Fantom, has launched a multi-chain bridge, allowing users to send assets between Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, Polygon, and Fantom. SpiritSwap’s SPIRIT token has also jumped today.
While the list of available assets varies depending on the network pairing, the bridge supports major stablecoins such as DAI, USDT, and USDC as well as ETH, MATIC, BNB, and many more. SpiritSwap’s multi-chain bridge will make it easier to move assets onto Fantom, encouraging users to take advantage of new yield farming opportunities on the network.
Over the past month, several highly-anticipated launches on Fantom have fueled its meteoric rally. The network’s FTM token has climbed over 82% in the last 30 days, with the expansion of DeFi on the network playing a major role. At the start of the month, the lending and borrowing protocol Geist Finance launched on Fantom, pushing the FTM token up 36%. Following that, Yearn.Finance announced that it would be expanding to the Fantom network, pushing prices even higher.
Fantom is one of several Layer 1 tokens that’s seen huge growth this year. Solana, Avalanche, Terra, and Cosmos all rallied over the summer amid growing belief in a multi-chain future, with generous liquidity mining programs and airdrops helping to attract users to their ecosystems.
However, with Bitcoin currently dominating the market, other Layer 1 tokens are slowly bleeding the gains they put in throughout August and September. Fantom has bucked this trend, breaking out higher and putting in new all-time highs.
Disclaimer: At the time of writing this feature, the author owned BTC, ETH, SOL, and several other cryptocurrencies.
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NFT-based game ZED RUN has deployed a cross-chain bridge solution provided by Biconomy.
The integration will help gamers transfer assets between Ethereum and Polygon.
It should give users faster access to their funds.
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ZED RUN has integrated a native bridge with Biconomy to transfer assets between Polygon and Ethereum.
ZED RUN Integrated Biconomy Bridge
Virtually Human Studio, the creators of the popular NFT-based racing game ZED RUN, announced today that it has deployed a cross-chain bridge solution provided by Biconomy.
Known as Hyphen, the solution allows for instant asset transfers between various Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible chains. The integration will enable ZED RUN gamers to instantly transfer funds from Ethereum to Polygon and vice versa.
According to Virtually Human Studio, the previous bridging process created a bad experience for users switching between the Polygon bridge and the dApp.
ZED RUN lets gamers breed, purchase, and race digital NFT horses. Players can participate in various NFT-based activities in the game and become stable owners, race track owners, horse breeders, and more.
To get started, users need to send ETH from Ethereum mainnet to Polygon via the sidechain bridge to pay for in-game NFTs. However, using the Polygon network bridge was a complex and time-consuming process for many users.
The deployment of Biconomy’s Hyphen means that ZED RUN users will be able to stay on the gaming dApp and directly bridge their funds from Ethereum at a higher speed.
Biconomy, a project backed by Coinbase Ventures, has been working on various bridging solutions with Polygon’s core team. Polygon, which is often described as an Ethereum commit chain, has recently seen parabolic growth in daily active addresses thanks to its booming NFT-based gaming space.
Discussing the new integration, chief technology officer and co-founder of Virtually Human Studio Geoff Wellman said that the team was “thrilled to be one of the first to implement a native cross-chain bridge into a gaming dApp.” Ahmed Al-Balaghi, CEO at Biconomy added that Hyphen would fix the issues with “complicated onboarding processes” on blockchain games via in-game bridging.
Biconomy has worked closely with ZED RUN in the past; it powered the game’s gasless transactions and has processed 24 million to date.
As an increasing number of projects aim for a more user-friendly experience, direct native bridges like those ZED RUN is integrating may become more commonplace across DeFi, gaming, and NFTs in the future. Besides Biconomy, a growing number of bridging solutions in the Ethereum ecosystem, such as Hop Protocol, Celer, and AnySwap, are already helping users transfer assets across blockchains and scaling networks.
The ZED RUN bridge is due to go live later this month.
Disclaimer: The author of this article owns ETH and MATIC at the time of this article.
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The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.
You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.
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Financial services company, MoneyGram International, has partnered with the Stellar Development Foundation to enable consumers to send money using Circle’s popular stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC) and convert directly to and from fiat.
Per a 6 Oct. announcement, MoneyGram has integrated support allowing crypto wallets connected to the Stellar Network to access its global retail platform. Working alongside Circle, MoneyGram will also enable “near-instant backend settlement”, account funding, and local fiat withdrawals using the USDC stable token.
United Texas Bank will act as the settlement bank to complete the process within the regulatory framework.
“As crypto and digital currencies rise in prominence, we’re especially optimistic about the potential of stablecoins as a method to streamline cross-border payments.” said Alex Holmes, MoneyGram Chairman and CEO.
The partnership is expected to launch at the end of 2021 in select jurisdictions, with an expanded international rollout planned in 2022. Denelle Dixon, CEO and executive director of the Stellar Development Foundation, stated:
“A new segment of cash users will be able to convert their cash into and out of USDC, giving them access to fast and affordable digital asset services that may have previously been out of reach.”
MoneyGram’s integration with Stellar comes just months after the firm moved to allow customers to withdraw crypto assets for cash via its point-of-sale outlets in the U.S. The service was rolled out in partnership with Bitcoin ATM and crypto exchange operator, Coinme Inc.
Related:Biden admin weighing bank-like regulation for stablecoin issuers
MoneyGram is no stranger to blockchain, having partnered with distributed ledger technology Ripple in June 2019 to collaborate on cross-border payments and foreign exchange settlements with digital assets.
However, the deal quickly went south, due to the uncertainty concerning U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit targeting Ripple. MoneyGram suspended support for Ripple’s platform during the first quarter of 2021.
Stellar was launched by Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb following his tumultuous departure from the project in 2014.
Circle published, on 4 Oct., filings revealing it is cooperating with a subpoena from the SEC that it received in July.
The launch of the new Polygon x RenVM Bridge was announced to Twitter by Polygon on May 28, who emphasized the bridge will allow Bitcoin and other assets to be used on the high-speed and low-cost layer-two.
Ren and Polygon have teamed up to launch a bridge allowing BTC and other assets to be transferred between Bitcoin and the Ethereum scaling solution.
Excited to announce the launch of a direct bridge to Polygon by @renprotocol!
With the Polygon x RenVM Bridge, users can move #BTC and many more assets directly to Polygon, enabling high-speed, low-cost txns for these assets.
— Polygon (previously Matic) (@0xPolygon) May 27, 2021
Ren’s ERC-20 representations of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dogecoin, Filecoin, Terra, Zcash, and DigiByte can now be used on the Polygon network. The assets can already be traded and pooled on top Polygon-based DEX, QuickSwap, with the team also hinting at future yield opportunities for the tokens on Polygon deployments of Curve Finance and BadgerDAO.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, a Ren representative indicated the team plans to launch more bridges to high-speed scalable networks in the near future.
Since launching the RenVM one year ago, Ren has emerged as a leading portal allowing wrapped versions of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Zcash, and other layer-one assets to be traded on the Ethereum mainnet. Roughly $246.3 million worth of assets were bridged using RenVM over the past seven days.
According to DeFi Llama, the RenVM is currently the 30th-largest decentralized finance protocol with a total value locked, or TVL, of $573 million.
Polygon has recently emerged as the leading layer-two scaling solution by TVL and the second-largest DeFi protocol overall with roughly $10.3 billion worth of assets currently held on the network. On May 25, it was announced that famed billionaire investor Mark Cuban had invested in Polygon.
However, competition among layer-twos is heating up, with Arbitrum targeting its mainnet launch for May 28, and Optimism aiming to go live in July.
