Synapse: Firing a Cross-Chain Future

Our Overview of Cross-Chain Bridges revealed that demand for cross-chain swaps surged tremendously over the past year. Since most blockchains are not inherently interoperable, seamless bridging of assets across chains is often a necessity. Regardless of which network is the next “ETH killer,” or which L2 captures the most market share, the need for bridges will remain.

Synapse is a cross-chain messaging protocol that is best known for its Synapse Bridge, currently consisting of the Synapse Network and the Synapse cross-chain AMM. A planned Synapse Chain PoS network will open up opportunities for a multitude of interoperable apps, including lending platforms and DEXs.

Despite a slowdown in on-chain activity, Synapse remains a market leader with weekly volume consistently above $20 million. This places it on par with other bridges, such as Wormhole’s $25 million average weekly volume, and ahead of Stargate and Hop bridge volumes. Noticeable peaks in volume occur during new product and token launches as well as new incentive programs, such as DeFi Kingdom’s Crystalvale launch or the launch of Velodrome DEX on Optimism.

Synapse started as Nerve, the first stableswap AMM on Binance Smart Chain. Nerve served as the gateway for moving assets between ETH and BSC. In August 2021, Nerve transitioned to Synapse to further power interoperability between blockchains.

Synapse Network

The Synapse Network is cross-chain infrastructure secured by multi-party computation (MPC) validators that collectively react to events on blockchains connected by the Synapse Network.