How Avalanche’s bridge to ETH and BTC could take over DeFi
Conceived as a blockchain ecosystem to launch DeFi and DApss and supported by a 3rd generation consensus protocol, Avalanche has recorded one of its best weeks since its launch. The fundamentals of its native token AVEX remain strong and as it gains more attention in the crypto space, it looks poised for another rally.
Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer confirmed that the platform recorded close to 1 million transactions on its smart contract blockchain. The surge in transaction volume, as reported by Sirer, occurred in the last two months adding that “Avalanche is becoming the most advanced public-goods layer-1.”
The platform was deployed with the capabilities to be “highly scalable and interoperable” even for corporate use. In that regard, Sirer stated that compatibility with Ethereum’s Virtual Machine has become a must-have for Avalanche and any other project looking to stay competitive in the DeFi and the layer-1 space.
Outlining how investors have been able to take advantage of Avalanche’s features in combination with Ethereum, Sirer said:
Multiple bridges enable assets to flow between the Avalanche and Ethereum ecosystems, putting users in-control of their DeFi strategies and exposure to fees. Just six months after the mainnet launch, this design and unique approach to interoperability is fueling the network’s first big wave of growth in users, applications, and assets.
Bridge to Bitcoin and competing in DeFi
High fees on Ethereum’s blockchain have caused a migration of users to lower-cost alternatives. Sirer argues that Avalanche is, along with Binance Smart Chain, one of the platforms that have seen a significant increase in user activity.
Avalanche to Ethereum (AEB) interoperable bridge was launched in early February and, since then, records a total of 970,000 transactions with its smart contract, 58,000 unique wallets created and $110 million in assets transferred, according to data shared by Sirer. Ava Labs CEO added:
API Requests are also skyrocketing, demonstrating that it’s not just a few whales diving in, but a rapidly developing DeFi ecosystem on Avalanche. Just last week, Avalanche APIs received 792.65M requests, including a period of 46.6M in just 3 hours.
It is expected that new bridges will be created between Avalanche and other blockchains, including one with Bitcoin, already in a test phase. More than 50 projects are working on the platform, with participation from Chainlink, SushiSwap, Fulcrum, among others.
In addition, Sirer reports rapid growth of automated marker makers and yield farms operating on Avalanche with Complus Network, YetiSwap, and others amassing a total of 6% of AVAX’s market capitalization. Sirer said:
Avalanche is leading the way in creating entirely new crypto assets like Initial Litigation Offerings, which unleashes the $10B asset class of litigation financing from the clutches of a privileged class of investors and into an open, fair, and transparent marketplace.
Avalanche’s platform has implemented improvements such as Sharding, Signature-separated transaction format, support for Bech32 addresses, transaction fee burning. Therefore, Avalanche is emerging as one of the strongest competitors to take the DeFi crown.
Native token AVEX has posted an 11.2% increase on the weekly chart and trades at $28.74. After a pullback from its high at $55, AVEX has plenty of room for future growth.