Wormhole Bridge Expands to Cosmos Ecosystem

Wormhole, the cross-chain bridge backed by Jump Crypto, is expanding into the Cosmos ecosystem, marking the project’s 11th collaboration with a base-layer blockchain.

Wormhole has partnered with Injective, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain that is able to natively communicate with Cosmos. Cosmos’ ATOM token currently boasts a market cap of over $3 billion, making it a top 30 token by market cap, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

“With Wormhole being a major force within the crypto industry, the partnership will be focused on expanding Injective’s network and supporting new dApps built on top of the blockchain moving forward,” said Eric Chen, CEO of Injective Labs, in a statement.

As layer 1 blockchains compete to amass total value locked (TVL) and users, investors and builders are increasingly focusing on interoperability solutions.

Popular layer 1, or base-layer, blockchains, such as Ethereum, Avalanche and Solana, cannot easily communicate with each other, meaning assets held on one blockchain are difficult to transfer onto another.

When tokens are bridged through Wormhole’s Portal Bridge, the original token is locked in a smart contract while a new Portal-wrapped version of that token gets minted on the target chain. Then, the wrapped tokens can be traded for tokens native to the target chain and used for decentralized finance (DeFi).

The integration makes Injective the primary gateway for cross-chain native assets from other prominent layer 1 chains to enter the Cosmos universe.

According to its website, Injective’s venture capital backers include Pantera Capital, Hashed and entrepreneur Mark Cuban.

Read more: Pantera Capital Leads $2.6M Seed Round for DEX Protocol Injective

Earlier this month, Wormhole announced that it had partnered with the blockchain Algorand, with Wormhole Foundation director Hendrik Hofstadt citing the chain’s nine-figure TVL as the main reason for the partnership.

According to its website, Wormhole has over $670 million in TVL across its various bridge integrations.