Published in

Secret Network Ecosystem

9 min readMay 4, 2023

In this step-by-step guide, we cover everything you need to know to port over your Cosmos assets (ATOM, OSMO, and more) to Secret Network and start trading and transacting in privacy.

Here’s what we will cover in this piece:

What to do before bridging
How to bridge your assets from other Cosmos-based chains to Secret Network
How to unwrap IBC privacy tokens and bridge them back to other Cosmos-based chains
Frequently asked questions

First things first

Before porting over your assets, you need to have a few things in place: wallets to store your (Secret) tokens and crypto to pay for “gas” fees.

1. Install the right wallets

Get a wallet to store your SCRT, other IBC tokens, and Secret Tokens.

We recommend the Keplr wallet, an interchain wallet that integrates with all Secret apps and tools for the Cosmos ecosystem. Go here to install the app or watch this tutorial.

💡 Check out our Secret Wallet Guide to create a wallet that can’t be linked to your identity. Note: the IBC Bridge is public, so you’ll need a separate non-private wallet to connect to it.

2. Gather your gas fees

To use the Secret IBC Portal, you need to pay fees on Secret Network and the Cosmos chain you’re bridging from (or to). Don’t worry — these are just small amounts.

You can get SCRT via direct pay, CEXs and DEXes on Secret, or as a wrapped ERC-20 version from DEXes on Ethereum — find all your options here
You can buy most IBC tokens (including SCRT) on Osmosis, the main AMM in the Cosmos ecosystem — find our guide on how to buy SCRT on Osmosis here

How to bridge your assets from other Cosmos-based chains to Secret Network

Here are the steps to bridge over your IBC tokens to Secret Network and start using Secret DeFi apps, trade your assets, provide liquidity, and more.

Step 1: Go to the Secret IBC Portal

The first step to going Secret in the Cosmos world is to head over to our IBC Portal:

Navigate to the Secret Dashboard app and click “Wrap” on the left side of the page
Connect your Keplr wallet by clicking on “Connect wallet” in the top right corner

Step 2: Deposit your IBC tokens

Before being able to wrap your IBC tokens and make them privacy-preserving, you’ll have to deposit them onto Secret Network.

Click on the drop down menu on the left to choose which asset you wish to bring to the Secret network (note: Any native IBC asset (ex ATOM) can only be deposited onto a new network from its native chain. (ex: You can only deposit ATOM onto Secret Network from the Cosmos hub chain, not directly from the Osmosis chain.))

Make sure you choose the asset in the drop down menu at the bottom (note: If you’re bridging SCRT from Osmosis you can also use the Withdraw function on the Osmosis app page)
Fill out the amount you’d like to deposit

Click on “Execute Transfer” and approve the transaction in the pop-up window

💡 If you want to make a swap or use Secret DeFi tools, we recommend checking whether the token you want to bridge has enough liquidity on Secret DEXs. Go to Secret Analytics and click on one of the DEXs on the left to view liquidity for different assets.

Step 3: Wrap your IBC tokens

If your deposit was successful, the tokens should show up under “Secret Network” in your Keplr wallet! (scroll to the bottom if you can’t see them)

However — they’re not privacy-preserving yet. To make your tokens Secret, you first need to wrap them:

Click Wrap in the menu on the left side of the page.
Fill out the number of tokens you’d like to wrap in the top field.
Click on “Wrap” and approve the transaction in the pop-up window

Step 4: Create a viewing key

Checking your Keplr wallet but not seeing anything? Hold on — Secret Tokens are encrypted, meaning you can only access them with a viewing key. Here’s how to get yours:

Click on the little “key” emoji that says “Set viewing key” next to it)
Click “Submit” in the pop-up window that appears, and approve the transaction

Step 5: Wait for your funds to show up and get started on Secret!

If your transaction was successful, the tokens should now appear in your Keplr wallet as Secret Tokens (SATOM, SOSMO, etc.). This means they’re encrypted and you can start transacting, trading, and investing in complete privacy!

Check out our DApps page and select “DeFi” to explore all the Secret DeFi apps you can use.

📖 Want to learn more about Secret Finance? Check out our Secret DeFi page.

📍 Want to track your transactions? Use Secret Nodes or Mintscan for an overview and Cryptoclerk, Xiphiar tools, or btn.group tools to see the private details of your SNIP-20 transaction history.

Need support?

Is your transaction not coming through? Take the following steps:

Check your transaction on the Mintscan — Relayers page — pick the chain you bridged from/to and scroll down to view “Transactions”
Check at which of the three stages your transaction got stuck — if it’s at the first stage (i.e., “Transfer” is not ticked), give it max another 12 hours
If your transaction is stuck halfway (“Transfer” is ticked) or completed but your assets don’t show up, then contact support via either:

Our Discord in the #💫ibc-support channel (under “Support”)
Our Support page

Make sure to mention the transaction hash (from Mintscan or Secret Nodes) so we can help you asap!

How to unwrap IBC privacy tokens and bridge them back to other Cosmos-based chains

Want to unwrap your Secret Tokens, make them public again, and port them over to another IBC chain? Here’s how to do so:

Step 1: Go to the Secret IBC Portal

The first step to going Secret in the Cosmos world is to head over to our IBC Portal:

Navigate to the Secret Dashboard app
Connect your Keplr wallet by clicking on “Connect wallet” in the top right corner

Step 2: Unwrap your IBC tokens

Before bridging over your Secret Tokens to another IBC chain you have to unwrap them first, i.e., make them public again:

Click the arrows in the middle to place the s-token on top (make sure to select the correct token)
Enter the amount you wish to unwrap
Click on “Unwrap” and approve the transaction in the pop-up window

Step 3: Withdraw your IBC tokens

Now that you unwrapped your IBC tokens they should show up as ATOM (IBC-channel) tokens on the IBC Portal page and in your Keplr wallet (under “Secret Network”).

To bridge them back to their original IBC chain, do the following:

Click on IBC on the left side menu
Make sure Secret is chosen on the left side drop-down menu
Choose the asset you’d like to bridge back

Fill out the amount you’d like to wrap
Click on “Withdraw” and approve the transaction in the pop-up window

Step 3: Wait for your funds to show up

If your transaction was successful, the tokens should now show up in your Keplr wallet under their “original” blockchain again!

Need support?

Is your transaction not coming through? Take the following steps:

Check your transaction on the Mintscan — Relayers page — pick the chain you bridged from/to and scroll down to view “Transactions”
Check at which of the three stages your transaction got stuck — if it’s at the first stage (i.e., “Transfer” is not ticked) give it max another 12 hours
If your transaction is stuck halfway (“Transfer” is ticked) or completed but your assets don’t show up, then contact support via either:

Our Discord in the #💫ibc-support channel (under “Support”)
Our Support page

Make sure to mention the transaction hash (from Mintscan or Secret Nodes) so we can help you asap!

Frequently asked questions

What are Secret Network IBC Bridges?

Secret Network IBC Bridges allow users to deposit their public IBC assets and “wrap” them into a Secret Token. When interacting with Secret Tokens, all transactions (including the recipient and the amount transferred) and balances are kept encrypted, ensuring anonymity and confidentiality. Secret Tokens are an extremely powerful tool — they are programmable and, therefore, smart contract compatible, allowing users to interact with complex DeFi protocols while preserving their privacy by default — much like Monero and other privacy-centric tokens.

How are security and permissions arranged on the IBC Bridge?

The Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC) is a Token/data bridging solution native to any Tendermint SDK chain. IBC uses light client verification for the origin and destination chain. Therefore, the bridge security is dubbed “native”, meaning there are no additional security implications when using IBC. A user of IBC trusts the security of chain A and chain B and, therefore, trusts IBC. IBC is also a permissionless protocol; anyone can relay transactions between chains. A relayer takes up a data packet on chain A and makes sure it arrives at chain B. For this, they pay specific transaction fees. A user can relay their own transactions if they want to. This requires a full node on both chain A and chain B. There is no trust assumption in your transaction going via a certain relayer. However, there is an assumption in the IBC channel used between the two chains. Only tokens transferred over the same IBC-channel are fungible due to this security assumption.

Which IBC assets can be wrapped into Secret Tokens?

Currently, you can wrap your ATOM, TERRA/LUNA, OSMO, DVPN, JUNO, HUAHUA, GRAV, IST, INJ, JKL, KUJI, USK, STARS, AKT, HARBOR, CMST, COMDEX, EVMOS, BLD, STRD and Stride zone liquid staking derivative assets using Secret-IBC bridges. And new tokens are added regularly.

Are Secret IBC bridges safe? How can I trust them to work properly?

One of the core benefits of the Cosmos ecosystem is its Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol. The IBC enables communication between the sovereign blockchains of the Cosmos Hub. IBC is implemented in the core protocol of the Tendermint SDK chain and isn’t developed by third-party developers or a permissioned application like the Ethereum bridge. Therefore, security is native, and no multisig process is needed. IBC has no additional trust assumptions as it’s a light client verification process. If you trust Luna and you trust Secret, then — by definition — you can trust holding IBC Luna on Secret.

How do I wrap my IBC assets into their Secret Token Counterpart?

Users can choose to wrap their IBC assets using the network Dapps or the Secret Dashboard: Simply navigate to the web pages provided and connect your Keplr wallet to begin using the Secret-IBC bridge of your choice!

Secret Dashboard: https://dash.scrt.network/wrap