Squid, a cross-chain routing protocol powered by Axelar, has closed a $3.5 million seed round to create native-to-native cross-chain token swaps.
The protocol will allow developers on 25 chains to natively exchange tokens between blockchains. Axelar, the blockchain messaging network, backed the raise as a “strategic investment.”
A Squid announcement said:
“There are so many ecosystems and chains out there waiting to be explored, but accessing them can feel impossible.
Obfuscated wrapped assets, confusing bridge UX, and the need for extensive research – just to securely move tokens across chains…”
Swapping tokens across chains can be cumbersome, confusing, and expensive. Also, bridges are often vulnerable in terms of security, with numerous bridge hacks in recent years. Tokens sent across a bridge are locked on the native chain and then used as tokens on the destination chain, such as B. wLUNA or pBTC packaged. As a result, many investors are choosing to use centralized exchanges to move tokens from one blockchain to another.
Squid will allow DEXs to add other chains’ native tokens to their offering. Outside of centralized exchanges, current cross-chain swap options are limited. THORChain is one of the main blockchains offering cross-chain swaps through their liquidity pools paired with RUNE tokens. THORSwap is a THORChain based DEX currently offering cross-chain swaps across 8 different networks. It has a TVL of over $132 million and processes around $20 million of daily swap volume.
The Squid DEX allows any user in 25 chains to exchange native tokens with one click. The developer tools are provided as “API and SDK along with an easy-to-deploy and customizable widget.”
“Squid’s mainnet launch includes support for 25 chains, including interoperability between EVM chains and the Cosmos.”
In addition, Squid uses Axelar to enable the purchase of NFTs with assets from any blockchain and convert integrated wallets to “chain-agnostic” wallets. The ability to transact across 25 chains in each supported token appears to be the ‘multi-chain future’. Squid believes its protocol “will address cross-chain’s longstanding UX issues” as the industry prepares to onboard new users in future bull runs.
Travis Scher of Squid investor North Island Ventures said:
“We believe the future of crypto is multi-chain and cross-chain and are very excited to support the amazing team at Squid as they build critical infrastructure to make this vision a reality.”
Some of the big players in the crypto space have already announced that they will be integrating Squid, including QuickSwap, Pangolin, Ledger, and BitKeep.
Squid went live on Ethereum, Moonbeam, Binance Chain, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Polygon, Fantom, Celo, Cosmos Hub, Crescent, Injective, Juno, Kujira, Osmosis, Secret Network, Terra-2, Agoric, AssetMantle, Axelar, Comdex, Evmos , Fetch, Ki, Regen and Umee.
Nodding to the collapse of FTX, Celsius and others, Sergey Gorbunov, the co-founder of Axelar, stated:
“The failure of centralized trading platforms has highlighted the need for secure decentralized alternatives. Squid is powering that future by enabling decentralized, secure, and easy-to-use cross-chain swaps…we’re excited that they’re built on top of the Axelar network.”
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