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Polygon zkEVM Live | Native USDC on Cosmos | Allbridge Hacked | Assure Wallet x LI.FI & More!

Last Week In The Multi-Chain Ecosystem (27 March - 02 April '23)

Arjun Chand

and

kram.eth

Apr 3, 2023

Welcome to LI.FI’s Cross Chain Insider newsletter. If you want to join this community of cross-chain aficionados learning about bridges, interoperability, and the multi-chain ecosystem, subscribe below.

You can also check out LI.FI’s research articles, and follow us on Twitter!

Bridge Updates

1) Assure Wallet Integrates LI.FI’s SDK 🦎

Assure, a multi-chain web3 wallet, has integrated LI.FI’s SDK to power seamless cross-chain bridging and swapping inside the app. With the integration, users can now bridge and swap any token on any chain supported by both Assure & LI.FI in just a few clicks.

2) Connext Announces Support for ConsenSys’ Linea 🤝

Connext announced the partnership with ConsenSys’ Linea with the testnet integration going live. This synergy allows devs to build on Linea’s zkEVM architecture and leverage Connext’s cross-chain feature to overcome liquidity and data fragmentation.

3) Multichain Integrates with Polygon zkEVM 💪

Multichain announced support for Polygon zkEVM. This integration enables users to bridge ETH to/from Polygon zkEVM and 30+ blockchains supported by Multichain.

4) Axelar and Celer Announce Support for Filecoin Ecosystem 🫡

Axelar and Celer Network will be launching on the FVM mainnet, enabling seamless communication and asset transfers between Filecoin and 30+ chains.

5) Allbridge Exploit Results in Loss of $570k 🧐

Allbridge Core liquidity pools were exploited in a hack that resulted in the loss of ~$570K (282,889 BUSD + 290,868 USDT). All you need to know about the hack:

The exploit targeted BUSD/USDT pools on BNB Chain.
Only the BNB Chain pools were affected by the attack.
The Allbridge team has proposed a white hat bounty for the recovered assets — BNB Chain has identified the Allbridge attacker following on-chain analysis and is actively supporting the Allbridge team on the fund recovery.
The bridge has been temporarily suspended to prevent the potential exploits of the other pools.
Allbridge LPs can withdraw their assets here.

Multi-Chain Ecosystem Updates

1) Polygon zkEVM is Now Live 💜

Polygon has launched the Mainnet beta of its much-awaited zkEVM chain, with Vitalik executing the first transaction. Several dApps support Polygon zkEVM at launch, and many more, like Uniswap, Balancer, Quickswap, among others, will be deployed on Polygon zkEVM in the near future.

Here’s an insightful read on zkEVMs and one on the difference b/w Polygon zkEVM & zkSync Era.

2) ConsenSys zkEVM is Now Linea 🔥

ConsenSys zkEVM is now Linea, a developer-friendly zk-rollup with native Metamask integration. Users and developers can access Linea by participating in its testnet.

3) Native USDC on Cosmos w/ Noble 👏

Noble, a generic asset issuance chain purpose-built for the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) ecosystem, is now live on Cosmos. Noble’s first issuance partner will be Circle, and as a result, users will soon be able to access USDC on Cosmos, which has been natively issued on Noble.

4) Lido Sunsetting on Polkadot and Kusama 🌞

Lido announced that ‘as of August 1st, 2023, development and operation support for Lido on Polkadot and Kusama will be discontinued. This is ‘due to key challenges under current implementation that led to unmet financial expectations.’ Read more.

5) Phantom Now Supports EVM dApps 💪

Phantom announced that it is now compatible with all the dApps on Ethereum, Polygon, and Solana. While the Phantom team works with different dApps to integrate dedicated “Connect with Phantom” buttons, here’s how to use Phantom with EVM dApps.

What’s Popping?

A Deep Dive into the EVM Space: L1 EVM Chains and Rollups

EVM chains run the show in crypto. Ethereum, large L1 EVM chains, and rollups make up 90% of all TVL in crypto.

Let’s look into why EVM is the kingmaker of chains in crypto and dive deeper into the growth stats of some of the most popular EVM chains to see their growth journey.

Why are EVM chains so dominant?

Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible blockchains (EVM chains) are currently winning the race for users and developers and hold almost 90% of the value locked into DeFi.

The reasons for the popularity of EVM chains are simple, though not impregnable (as we will discuss later):

Interoperability — EVM chains execute transactions using the same rules as Ethereum and applications built on top of EVM chains are written in the same language (Solidity) as Ethereum, so it’s relatively easy to port dApps from one chain to another.
Development resources and network effects — EVM chains have the most number of active developers across crypto. This comes down to the immense activity and capital on these chains attracting devs, users, and, more importantly, the large and battle-tested repo of dev tooling (libraries, good documentation, support) that makes development on EVM chains easier and more effective since developers and users don’t need to diverge from their current experience flows.
Connectivity — Most bridges only support EVM chains and, as a result, there’s more efficiency in capital flows between these chains.

Let’s dive into the EVM space, specifically breaking apart the ecosystem into L1 EVM Chains and Rollups.

L1 EVM Chains

Ethereum

Ethereum is where innovation started with smart contracts & decentralized applications in crypto.

It is one of the longest running blockchains in the industry (live since 30 July 2015).

At the peak of the bull run in November 2021, Ethereum DeFi TVL was over $106B.

BNB Chain

BNB Chain enjoys strong network effects via Binance Exchange, one of the biggest centralized exchanges in the world.

It is home to some of the most active users in crypto.

The TVL on BNB Chain at peak was >$20B.

Polygon

The Polygon ecosystem enjoys some of the strongest network effects in crypto.

Polygon has attracted significant attention from the Web2 world (Starbucks, Adidas, Disney) through its BD efforts.

Avalanche

Avalanche puts a strong focus on developer adoption. It has a growing ecosystem of ~22 Subnets.

At peak, the TVL on Avalanche was over $12B and despite the developments on the chain, its growth has slowed down in the bear market.

Fantom

Fantom’s ecosystem receives strong support from the Fantom foundation in the form of grants, technical support, and other resources.

However, just like Avalanche, capital seems to be moving away from Fantom (its TVL is down ~94.5% from its peak at $7.99B).

Optimistic Rollups

Arbitrum

On Feb 21, 2023, Arbitrum became the first rollup to surpass Ethereum Mainnet in daily activity.

With dApps like GMX attracting users & capital, Arbitrum's growth shows no sign of slowing down.

If you thought the stats above were impressive, here’s how Arbitrum’s stats shape-up post the $ARB airdrop:

On March 23, 2023, Arbitrum surpassed Ethereum by 2.5 times with 2.73M transactions on the network compared to Ethereum’s 1.08M. On that day, Arbitrum accounted for 66% of the total activity on all L2s.
Arbitrum had 611k active addresses on the day of the airdrop (the previous record was held by Optimism with 53k addresses).

Optimism

The TVL on Optimism is currently 1.2M ETH (~$1.9B), up approximately 700% YOY.

Optimism accounts for ~29% of the TVL across all Rollups.

With Optimism fuelling narratives like RollApps through initiatives like the OP Stack, the future is exciting.

Closing Thoughts

The EVM space is constantly evolving, and there is still much room for growth and innovation. New EVM chains (zkEVMs) and rollups are being launched, and existing ones are continuing to improve and expand their offerings — it will be interesting to see how new developments and innovations shape its growth in the future.

If you find this interesting, we’ve written an extensive article making the case to validate crypto’s multi-chain thesis. Check it out!