With last month’s incorporation of the Dencun upgrade, Ethereum’s L2s have been on a bit of tear, making transactions nearly as cheap (or sometimes even cheaper) then transacting on Solana. In today’s article, I’m going to be talking about why I think Across’ V3 is going to be at the hub of all this, and why their integration with their bridge to Linea is just the beginning.
But first let’s talk about Linea
As Layer3’s Linea Park event has come to a close this past week, it comes to no surprise that it’s activity has skyrocketed over the past week, with it’s transactions averaging nearly 40 a second:
Designed by Consensys and with dozens of different backers, Linea’s future alrdrop is highly anticipated, especially considering that the pool of alrdrop farmers should be significantly reduced as its point system requires Proof-of-Humanity. Additionally by witnessing first hand all the different projects being showcase in their Linea Park event, it’s clear that there’s a great number of diverse projects that have been attracted to Linea’s ecosystem — no wonder as its zero-knowledge-proof tech makes it extremely easy and fast to use.
Linea Voyage
Nearly 2 months ago, Linea announced their distribution of $LXP, which as a soulbound ERC-20 token would act as a tokenized point system to those who have contributed to the network. Because the tokens are soulbound, they are non-transferrable, which makes sense because only those wallets that complete a Proof-of-Humanity are eligible to participate.
As I mentioned before, their recent Linea Park event ended this past week, but no need to worry if you’re just now jumping in, as there’s been a constant stream of different ways to participate in the Voyage, for instance the Clutch AI Meme Fest which ends on April 15th:
Linea x Across
I’ve been writing about Across for some time now, as they’re probably one of the most frequent shippers out of all the bridge protocols. And in similar fashion just last week, Across added Linea into their arsenal of bridgeable chains:
With other bridges like Stargate which are seeing more than 2x’s the daily bridging volume, Across is able to deliver bridging to Linea at almost 1/100th of the fees.
How is Across able to be so cheap (and fast)?
When wanting to bridge to Linea, the Across user signs an “intent,” or basically an attestation that they’re willing to bridge X amount of $ETH and to receive at least Y amount of $ETH on Linea. Through 3rd parties known as as “relayers,” the relayers race to fill the bridger’s order with their own money on Linea as quickly as possible — the first one to do so getting awarded the user’s fees.
As you can see in the graphic above, the bridger’s order is filled as if it were a simple peer-to-peer transfer. Technically not even a bridge, Across instead acts as a settlement layer to make sure that the winning relayer gets awarded appropriately with the user’s original funds.
No trade-offs on security: Unlike other bridges like Wormhole, there’s no need for any wrapped or receipt tokens, and technically Across doesn’t need to hold any liquidity either — as its the relayers are getting the users funds and vice versa. And additionally, as I’ve written in the past, the Across DAO is secured by its sibling protocol, UMA, which secures Across through its Optimistic Oracle.
How cheap is cheap? If you compare Across’ times and fees to nearly any DEX aggregator, the rates simply aren’t even in the same league.
As you can see in the graphic above, the use of intents allows transfers to occur not only under a minute, but also literally cents on the dollar in fees compared to the other “fastest” or “best returns” out there.
On Targets
Apart from being perhaps one of the best bridges, there are a few other bullish catalysts that I see on the horizon…
L2 Roadmap
As I mentioned before, the Across devs are continuing to ship, and I imagine that they will continue to do so as long as there’s so many fast L2s coming out. Here’s what they’ve shipped so far:
Not pictured above is Polygon zkEVM, which will likely be the next chain introduced, as its been reviewed favorably since it’s proposal was made last month.
High Returns
Even though they technically don’t need to hold liquidity pools on their platform in order to function, Across currently offers some of the highest on their LPs:
As you can see in the graphic above, you can currently earn up to 26.12% APY on your staked $ETH or more than 45% APY on your stablecoins. Granted these rewards are paid out in Across’ native token $ACX, but that might not be a bad thing since $ACX has outperformed $ETH since…last July?
Low Marketcap
Speaking of price action, if you were lucky enough to get an allocation of Wormhole’s recent alrdrop, you may have noticed that even though it’s technically just a governance token, $W has already amassed a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of nearly $11 billion dollars:
By comparison $ACX, the native token for Across, has an FDV of roughly $320 million dollars, or in other words, an FDV that’s less than 1/34th the size of $W:
Not to discredit anything about Wormhole, but I think the valuation of $W show how critically undervalued $ACX, and my bet its only just a matter of time until the market comes to realize this.
Conclusion
Unlike Wormhole, Across doesn’t bridge to Solana (yet), but it hands down is the fastest and perhaps the safest bridge out there, which is why I’m so bullish on Across and $ACX, especially since we haven’t even really hit alt season yet.
Haven’t used Across yet? Consider supporting this blog and using my referral link which will allow me to earn some extra $ACX on your transactions. Or better yet, generate your own and refer your friends and family so that they can experience really, the “bridge that Ethereum deserves.”
And as always, thanks for taking the time to read this and be sure to follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/CryptosWith) to get all my latest updates. Also, looking for a gift for your Crypto-loving/hating friend? Give them a REKT journal to cheer them up!
Disclaimer: And as a final reminder, this is not financial advice and this is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Please as always, do your own research and find what investments are best for you. Cheers everyone! allocation, but I’m also earning some pretty significant yields on my assets at the same time.