5 Best Crypto Bridges — How to Move Coins Across Blockchains?

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Coinrule

7 min readOct 7, 2021

What are Bridges?

At first, there was only Bitcoin. Then Ethereum quickly gained traction innovating the crypto space introducing the concept of smart contracts. Since then, many projects have tried to emerge as the Ethereum-killer. It’s now clear that Ethereum is here to stay and that interoperability will be the keyword for the cryptocurrency ecosystem in the years to come.

Participants have realised that the market is moving towards a multi-chain ecosystem and are now more often looking for ways to move coins across the different networks. It’s now clear that Crypto bridges will play a pivotal role in the long-term success of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

According to recent stats, more than 100 different public blockchains are actively working. These blockchains have unique design trade-offs, security protocols, performances, transaction costs, communities, and applications. Moreover, the number of blockchains networks is estimated to increase in the future.

Because of the multi-chain market structure, the need and demand for cross-chain interoperability have increased dramatically. That’s why in recent months, there has been an explosion in blockchain bridges. The main goal of crypto bridges is to help unify the fragmented landscape.

The Importance of Cross-Chain Interoperability

Cross-chain interoperability allows users to perform a range of various DeFi (Decentralized Finance) tasks without being limited to only one network. It enables multiple blockchains to trade-off and connects their security feature sets, decentralization aspects, efficiencies, and speed. Not only does it allow features and users to perform different actions freely, but it also reduces fragmentation and improves chain efficiency across multiple blockchains.

Thanks to efficient interoperability between different networks, investors will move funds to wherever they can find the most profitable yield-bearing pools. Traders will trade a broader range of assets while retaining complete control over their funds. Also, the market will rely less on centralized entities such as exchanges, helping to achieve the original promise of cryptocurrencies: decentralization and more censorship-resistant applications.

This article will discuss five different crypto bridges that will allow you to unlock innovation and achieve greater utility and productivity against your existing crypto assets.

AnySwap: Cross Chain One-Stop-Shop

AnySwap is a cross-chain decentralized protocol for swapping, and it’s based on Fusion DCRM (Distributed Control Rights Management). It offers an automated liquidity and pricing system and allows crypto users to move their coins from many blockchains using so-called EdDSA or ECDSA algorithms.

What makes AnySwap unique is the possibility of connecting chains that are widely used and accepted but not yet fully integrated with DeFi products nowadays.

The list of networks that AnySwap connects includes platforms such as FSN, LTC, XRP, USDT, ETH, BTC, and more.

Features of AnySwap

It’s a decentralized cross-chain bridge that allows the users to mint the wrapped token by depositing their coins
It enables crypto users to swap their coins into another coin almost instantly using its ‘anyCoin’ structure. I.e. you can swap ETH from Ethereum to anyETH on BSC and then swap it into any other asset on BSC
The system follows preprogrammed automated liquidity and pricing.

AnySwap charges a fee of 0.4% for each swap transaction, 0.1% goes to the project, and 0.3% goes to the liquidity providers.

cBridge: Best for User Experience

cBridge is another great crypto bridge. Celer Network has been working on the scalability of the Ethereum network since 2019, and its core team is likely among the most experienced when it comes to interoperability.

It’s a multi-chain platform that allows users any-to-any, low-cost, and instant value transfers. Not only does it support various layer-1 blockchains such as Polkadot and Ethereum, but it also works with several layer-2 solutions such as sidechains (i.e. Polygon), ZK Rollups, and Optimistic Rollups.

Features of cBRIDGE

Allows users to enter and exit layer-2 to/from layer-1 instantly without any delay.
Allows users to transfer liquidity between several different layer-2 platforms based on Ethereum without involving any layer-1 blockchain. It includes Optimistic Rollup networks such as Optimism and PoS (Proof of Stake) sidechains like SKALE and Polygon
It enables two-way bridging between entirely different layer-1 and layer-2 blockchains. Moreover, users don’t even need to go through to the related root layer-1 for that.

cBRIDGE supports all EVM-compatible blockchains such as Avalanche and Fantom for cross-chain transfers, and it also includes layer-2 scaling solutions and some layer-1 blockchains with EVM compatibility. The fees percentage of the platform ranges from 0.04% to 0.1% for most transactions. The only exception is transactions that originate from Optimism and Arbitrum, and the fee for these transfers is 0.2%.

RenBridge: Best Way to Bridge BTC

RenBridge is a DApp (Decentralized Application) initially launched to enable users to mint real Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Zcash cryptocurrencies as ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain (renBTC, renBCH, and renZEC, respectively. Users can convert the ren ERC-20 token back to their native blockchain.

As the crypto ecosystem evolved, so did RenBridge. The V2 of the bridge now supports multiple popular networks, such as Binance Smart Chain, Avalance, Solana, Arbitrum, Fantom, Avalanche and Polygon, with more to come.

Features of RenBridge

Allows you to release (burn) your renBTC, renBCH, and renZEC anytime to get back to your real tokens
Allows you to mint your renBTC, renBCH, and renZEC at any given time
Allows you to use any wallet to send your Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Zcash.

RenBridge has three different types of fees. The first one is 0.15% per burn, and the second one is 0.15% per mint. Users also need to pay a platform fee to pay different miners working on connected blockchains. This fee is calculated in real-time (dynamically) based on the congestion in the network.

Wormhole: Best Crypto Bridge to Solana

The Wormhole is the leading protocol of the Solana network for interoperability that works as a cross-chain bridge between Ethereum and Solana. It allows users to transfer their digital assets between SPL and ERC-2 blockchains.

It’s a decentralized and bi-directional bridge for ERC-20 and SPL tokens. It allows existing communities, platforms, and projects to move their crypto assets conveniently across multiple blockchains. Not only does it make interoperability seamless, but it also allows the users to benefit from the low cost and high speed of the Solana network.

Features of Wormhole

Allows users to lock their ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain and mint SPL token by using the Solana network
Allows crypto users to access the low-cost and high-speed benefits of the Solana platform instead of writing their code snippets for the platform
Facilitates fast transfer regardless of the type from one blockchain to another.

Synapse: Best for Passive Income

Synapse is a cross-chain layer network that bridges crypto assets across multiple blockchains. It allows users to swap assets, earn yield, and more by empowering frictionless cross-chain interoperability.

Any crypto user can utilize the power of this platform to achieve integral activities such as generalized messaging, swaps, and asset transfer. That’s because Synapse offers permissionless and decentralized transactions between layer-2 ecosystems, sidechains, and layer-1 blockchains.

One of the main advantages of Synapse is the possibility of providing liquidity to the bridge so that you can earn part of the fees users pay to the bridge to move assets across chains.

Features of Synapse

Supports nUSD stablecoin that enables cross-chain swapping of assets.
nETH is used for the bridging of layer-2 platforms such as Arbitrum from/to ETH.
Liquidity pools to earn passive income on stable coins.

The Synapse bridge has a bridge transaction fee of 0.05%, along with a chain-specific minimum fee that depends upon the corresponding chain’s average gas fees.

As time goes by, not only does the future look more decentralized but also more interconnected. Cryptocurrencies are rapidly gaining mainstream adoption thanks to more user-friendly applications and improved user experiences. Still, many hurdles remain, and only the most tech-savvy adopters can navigate the space for now.

In months to come, the challenge for crypto bridges will be to reduce any frictions in terms of user experience which will allow more participants to use these protocols.

There will be massive benefits from using crypto bridges in the future as they will connect communities, applications, and products in ways we can only imagine today.

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DISCLAIMER

I am not an analyst or investment advisor. Everything that I provide here site is purely for guidance, informational and educational purposes. All information contained in my post should be independently verified and confirmed. I can’t be found accountable for any loss or damage whatsoever caused in reliance upon such information. Please be aware of the risks involved with trading cryptocurrencies.