When you send ETH from Ethereum to Solana, you’re not actually moving the coin—you’re using a decentralized bridge, a trustless system that locks assets on one chain and mints equivalent tokens on another. Also known as cross-chain bridge, it’s what makes DeFi wallets feel like one big network instead of dozens of isolated islands. Without it, you’d be stuck holding Bitcoin on Bitcoin, Ethereum on Ethereum, and never able to use them together. That’s why decentralized bridges are now the hidden engines behind most DeFi strategies.
These bridges rely on smart contracts, self-executing code that locks and releases assets based on predefined rules on both ends. They don’t need a central company to approve transfers—just code, cryptography, and often, a network of validators who sign off on each transaction. But here’s the catch: if the code has a flaw, or if validators get compromised, your funds can vanish. That’s why some bridges, like the one used by Ronin after its $600M hack, lost trust overnight. Not all bridges are built the same. Some use federated models with a small group of trusted nodes; others use zero-knowledge proofs to verify transactions without revealing data. The best ones are audited, transparent, and have real liquidity—not just fake TVL inflated by looping tokens back and forth.
Related tools like blockchain oracles, systems that feed real-world data into smart contracts often work alongside bridges to make sure price feeds and asset values stay accurate across chains. And when regulators start tracking crypto flows, blockchain forensics, the practice of tracing transactions to identify illicit activity is already watching how assets move through these bridges to evade sanctions or launder funds. That’s why some bridges are now adding compliance layers—something that goes against their original decentralized spirit.
What you’ll find below are real-world examples of how these bridges are used, abused, and sometimes destroyed. From platforms that vanished with user funds to new ones trying to fix past mistakes, this collection cuts through the hype. You’ll see which bridges still work, which ones are dead, and what you need to check before you send your next token across chains.
Swingby Skybridge isn't a crypto exchange - it's a decentralized cross-chain bridge for moving Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance Chain assets without custodians. Learn how it works, why it's ignored, and who should use it.
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