Bridge
cross-chain bridge
A protocol that lets assets move between chains, usually by lock-and-mint, burn-and-mint, or liquidity-network designs.
Bridges are historically the highest-loss surface in crypto — Ronin, Wormhole, Nomad, Multichain, and Poly Network exploits collectively totalled > $2B. Stablecoins crossing bridges become "wrapped" and inherit the bridge's security model; canonical (issuer-native) bridges are preferred where available.
Related terms
- Canonical bridgeAn issuer- or chain-operated bridge that produces the version of an asset the issuer treats as its native off-chain representation.
- Wrapped tokenA token that represents another asset on a different chain or in a different standard, redeemable 1:1.
- Cross-chainActivity that spans more than one blockchain — bridge transfers, messaging, multi-chain protocols.
- Liquidity-network bridgeA bridge design where pre-funded LPs fulfil cross-chain transfers — fast, but with LP-side imbalance risk.