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By Frank, PANews With the overall resurgence of the DeFi craze in the crypto market, on-chain activity has surged simultaneously. The role of cross-chain bridges in connecting chains is crucial.By Frank, PANews With the overall resurgence of the DeFi craze in the crypto market, on-chain activity has surged simultaneously. The role of cross-chain bridges in connecting chains is crucial.

Analysis of the Cross-Chain Bridge Market in 2025: Significant Growth in Single Cross-Chain Funding, Ethereum Becomes the Most Investor, and Three Major Protocols Compete Differentiatedly

Author: PANews

Source: PANews

2025/08/13 16:05

8 min read

CROSS$0.11327-0.58%

DEFI$0.000341-5.27%

MAJOR$0.08576-6.03%

By Frank, PANews

With the overall resurgence of the DeFi craze in the crypto market, on-chain activity has surged simultaneously. The role of cross-chain bridges in connecting chains is crucial. Cross-chain bridge activity not only reflects the fluctuations in on-chain activity but also the demand for activity across different chains. So, how have the leading cross-chain bridges performed this year? PANews has conducted a comprehensive review.

Market overview: Cross-chain transaction volume increases year by year, while transaction frequency remains stable

In terms of overall cross-chain bridge data, it entered an active phase at the end of 2024. The total cross-chain transaction volume in September 2024 was only around $18.6 billion. By November 2024, this figure had rapidly increased to $50 billion, an increase of approximately 188%. This active level remained at this level after entering 2025.

Cross-chain transaction volume changes

In July, the highest cross-chain transaction volume on the blockchain reached $56.1 billion, a record high. However, a closer look at the data reveals that this growth in transaction volume is largely driven by large-value transactions. In terms of transaction volume, the monthly number of transactions reached 15.12 million in May 2024. By November 2024, the number remained around 14.47 million, showing no significant increase in volume as transaction value surged. According to PANews calculations, the average transaction value on the blockchain was approximately $1,051 in May 2024. By November 2024, this figure had grown to $3,489, a 231% increase.

Changes in the number of cross-chain transactions

The main reason behind this shift may be that from 2024 to early 2025, public chains like Solana, Base, and BSC saw a surge in popularity due to the MEME token and airdrops, leading to frequent fluctuations in small amounts of on-chain funds. Since April 2025, the popularity of these themes has declined, but more established players with deeper pockets have entered the market. This has led to a gradual shift in on-chain activity from high-frequency, small-scale interactions to larger-scale capital deployment and transfers.

Looking at the liquidity changes across various public chains this year, Ethereum remains the undisputed leader in cross-chain transactions. Whether inflows, outflows, or net flows, Ethereum ranks first, with net inflows reaching $10.1 billion year-to-date, nearly eight times that of the next-largest public chain.

Sonic unexpectedly became the second-largest public chain by net inflow, with a total net inflow of approximately $1.279 billion. Its net outflow was minimal, with the vast majority of cross-chain activity being inflows. However, this is likely due to statistical inflated figures caused by the migration of assets from the old chain to the new chain, and does not represent actual activity.

In terms of net outflow, Base ranked first, reaching $5 billion. This may be related to the recent vampire effect of the Ethereum mainnet. In the past three months, Base has transferred $5.9 billion to Ethereum, even exceeding the total net outflow since the beginning of the year.

Another interesting statistic is that Starknet's cross-chain activity appears to be quite active. It ranks second in both inflow and outflow, and its transaction volume is about half of that of the Ethereum mainnet.

Track pattern: the battle for traffic between leading protocols and applications

In terms of cross-chain messaging protocols, LayerZero remains the leading project. In the past month, LayerZero handled $4.965 billion in cross-chain transactions, accounting for nearly half of the total cross-chain transaction volume. Circle CCTP ranked second in transaction volume, reaching $3.8 billion. This is directly related to the growing popularity of USDC. Furthermore, established cross-chain protocol giant Wormhole ranked third, and emerging startup Hyperlane took fourth place.

In terms of cross-chain bridge applications, Hyperliquid has recently become the most active cross-chain bridge, with a monthly trading volume of approximately $4.965 billion. Although Hyperliquid's cross-chain structure is very simple, simply transferring stablecoin funds between Hyperliquid and Arbitrum, due to Hyperliquid's current trading popularity and the lack of a native stablecoin, the vast majority of deposits and withdrawals must be processed through cross-chain bridges. This has also helped Hyperliquid seize its position as a leading cross-chain bridge application.

The second-ranked cross-chain bridge is USDT0. However, its inclusion on the list may be primarily due to statistical caliber issues. The data panel also includes "issuer-level minting, burning, and migration" as "cross-chain bridge traffic." In layman's terms, this lumps together the exchange and issuance of the stablecoin USDT on various chains as cross-chain transaction volume.

Top cross-chain bridge rankings

Core Players Review: Differentiated Competition among the Three Major Protocols

The third to fifth ranked cross-chain bridges are Across, Stargate, and deBridge. These three cross-chain bridges are more representative of the market situation of cross-chain bridge protocols.

Across:

Across's trading volume over the past month has reached approximately $1.4 billion, with approximately 20,000 transactions. Across is a cross-chain bridging protocol based on UMA's Optimistic oracle. In March of this year, it secured $41 million in funding led by Paradigm, with participation from renowned institutions such as Coinbase Ventures, Bain Capital Crypto, and Multicoin Capital.

In May, Across integrated the BSC ecosystem and launched one-click cross-chain token swaps with PancakeSwap and KyberSwap. With the growing popularity of the BSC chain, its popularity has continued to rise. In July, the V4 upgrade was released, reducing the time it takes to add new chains from weeks to months to hours. Current trading volume is approximately $46 million per day, roughly double the average level at the beginning of 2024. The average cross-chain transaction size on Across is approximately $4,718, and it supports 19 chains.

From the perspective of ecological development, Across's current strategy is to seize the leading DEXs (PancakeSwap, KyberSwap), sink "cross-chain" to "a step in currency exchange", and use V4 to increase the "speed of adding new chains".

Stargate:

Stargate is a composable liquidity transfer protocol built on the LayerZero messaging layer. Its trading volume in the past month was approximately $990 million.

In 2025, Stargate's focus will be on the optimizations and key Hydra mechanisms introduced in version 2. Hydra extends liquidity from established "core" chains to emerging L1/L2 chains by locking native assets in core pools and minting chain-homogeneous tokens on target chains. This innovation eliminates the need for new chains to establish pools across multiple chains; instead, they can simply connect to Hydra and receive liquidity in tokens like USDC, USDT, and ETH from any connected chain. One of Stargate's greatest strengths is its extensive chain support; according to official announcements, 80 chains are currently supported.

However, Stargate's governance token, STG, has consistently underperformed, declining steadily since the beginning of 2024. In August 2025, the LayerZero Foundation proposed a proposal worth approximately $110 million to acquire Stargate. The proposal would dissolve the Stargate DAO and deactivate the STG token, with all STG holders being exchanged for ZRO tokens at a fixed ratio of 1 STG to 0.08634 ZRO.

The public rationale for the proposal is to accelerate development, provide more resources for Stargate, and create a unified technology stack for the LayerZero ecosystem. Given that Stargate was originally developed by LayerZero Labs, this move is seen as "bringing the bridge home." However, there has been considerable opposition within the STG community, with many arguing that the offer significantly undervalues Stargate's substantial revenue stream (projected to exceed $1.4 million annually) and its historical transaction volume of over $70 billion. The proposal requires a 70% supermajority to pass, and LayerZero insiders holding STG will abstain from voting. Voting on the proposal is expected to be completed on August 21st.

Overall, continuing to achieve "multi-chain coverage" remains Stargate's current main goal.

deBridge:

deBridge is a universal messaging protocol, secured by an independent, elected network of validators running nodes for all supported chains. deBridge has seen approximately $814 million in trading volume over the past month and has settled over $13.4 billion in trading volume.

deBridge is one of the most profitable cross-chain bridges, generating $2.96 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2025 and $2.06 million in the second quarter. Annualized fees are expected to exceed $19 million. On July 24, 2025, the deBridge Foundation announced the launch of a reserve fund, which will use 100% of the protocol's revenue to repurchase its native token, DBR, on the open market. This announcement significantly stimulated DBR's market value, leading to several rapid 50% increases in a short period of time, with the price nearly doubling within a few days. However, this stimulus failed to stabilize the market, with each surge quickly followed by a decline.

Overall, the cross-chain bridge market in 2025 presents a complex situation of "macro-hot and micro-differentiation".

On the one hand, driven by a shift in capital deployment and transfers on a larger scale, overall cross-chain transaction volume hit a record high. Ethereum, with its strong consensus and liquidity, has unsurprisingly become the largest capital hub. However, the data reveals that this boom is driven more by large transactions than by widespread user growth, signaling a shift in cross-chain activity from retail speculation to deeper capital flows.

On the other hand, the competition among cross-chain protocols has transcended simple trading volume. While applications like Hyperliquid and USDT0 top the charts, their data reflects specific business needs or statistical calibers and does not fully represent the true market landscape for general-purpose cross-chain bridges. The real focus is on core protocols like Across, Stargate, and deBridge, which are engaged in a comprehensive battle over technical architecture, ecosystem integration, and economic models.

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#DeFi #On-chain #DEX #Meme #Airdrop

The gaming industry is in the midst of a historic shift, driven by the rise of Web3. Unlike traditional games, where developers and publishers control assets and dictate in-game economies, Web3 gaming empowers players with ownership and influence. Built on blockchain technology, these ecosystems are decentralized by design, enabling true digital asset ownership, transparent economies, and a future where players help shape the games they play. However, as Web3 gaming grows, security becomes a focal point. The range of security concerns, from hacking to asset theft to vulnerabilities in smart contracts, is a significant issue that will undermine or erode trust in this ecosystem, limiting or stopping adoption. Blockchain technology could be used to create security processes around secure, transparent, and fair Web3 gaming ecosystems. We will explore how security is increasing within gaming ecosystems, which challenges are being overcome, and what the future of security looks like. Why is Security Important in Web3 Gaming? Web3 gaming differs from traditional gaming in that players engage with both the game and assets with real value attached. Players own in-game assets that exist as tokens or NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), and can trade and sell them. These game assets usually represent significant financial value, meaning security failure could represent real monetary loss. In essence, without security, the promises of owning “something” in Web3, decentralized economies within games, and all that comes with the term “fair” gameplay can easily be eroded by fraud, hacking, and exploitation. This is precisely why the uniqueness of blockchain should be emphasized in securing Web3 gaming. How Blockchain Ensures Security in Web3 Gaming?

Immutable Ownership of Assets Blockchain records can be manipulated by anyone. If a player owns a sword, skin, or plot of land as an NFT, it is verifiably in their ownership, and it cannot be altered or deleted by the developer or even hacked. This has created a proven track record of ownership, providing control back to the players, unlike any centralised gaming platform where assets can be revoked.
Decentralized Infrastructure Blockchain networks also have a distributed architecture where game data is stored in a worldwide network of nodes, making them much less susceptible to centralised points of failure and attacks. This decentralised approach makes it exponentially more difficult to hijack systems or even shut off the game’s economy.
Secure Transactions with Cryptography Whether a player buys an NFT or trades their in-game tokens for other items or tokens, the transactions are enforced by cryptographic algorithms, ensuring secure, verifiable, and irreversible transactions and eliminating the risks of double-spending or fraudulent trades.
Smart Contract Automation Smart contracts automate the enforcement of game rules and players’ economic exchanges for the developer, eliminating the need for intermediaries or middlemen, and trust for the developer. For example, if a player completes a quest that promises a reward, the smart contract will execute and distribute what was promised.
Anti-Cheating and Fair Gameplay The naturally transparent nature of blockchain makes it extremely simple for anyone to examine a specific instance of gameplay and verify the economic outcomes from that play. Furthermore, multi-player games that enforce smart contracts on things like loot sharing or win sharing can automate and measure trustlessness and avoid cheating, manipulations, and fraud by developers.
Cross-Platform Security Many Web3 games feature asset interoperability across platforms. This interoperability is made viable by blockchain, which guarantees ownership is maintained whenever assets transition from one game or marketplace to another, thereby offering protection to players who rely on transfers for security against fraud. Key Security Dangers in Web3 Gaming Although blockchain provides sound first principles of security, the Web3 gaming ecosystem is susceptible to threats. Some of the most serious threats include:

Smart Contract Vulnerabilities: Smart contracts that are poorly written or lack auditing will leave openings for exploitation and thereby result in asset loss. Phishing Attacks: Unintentionally exposing or revealing private keys or signing transactions that are not possible to reverse, under the assumption they were genuine transaction requests. Bridge Hacks: Cross-chain bridges, which allow players to move their assets between their respective blockchains, continually face hacks, requiring vigilance from players and developers. Scams and Rug Pulls: Rug pulls occur when a game project raises money and leaves, leaving player assets worthless. Regulatory Ambiguity: Global regulations remain unclear; risks exist for players and developers alike. While blockchain alone won’t resolve every issue, it remediates the responsibility of the first principles, more so when joined by processes such as auditing, education, and the right governance, which can improve their contribution to the security landscapes in game ecosystems. Real Life Examples of Blockchain Security in Web3 Gaming Axie Infinity (Ronin Hack): The Axie Infinity game and several projects suffered one of the biggest hacks thus far on its Ronin bridge; however, it demonstrated the effectiveness of multi-sig security and the effective utilization of decentralization. The industry benefited through learning and reflection, thus, as projects have implemented changes to reduce the risks of future hacks or misappropriation. Immutable X: This Ethereum scaling solution aims to ensure secure NFT transactions for gaming, allowing players to trade an asset without the burden of exorbitant fees and fears of being a victim of fraud. Enjin: Enjin is providing a trusted infrastructure for Web3 games, offering secure NFT creation and transfer while reiterating that ownership and an asset securely belong to the player. These examples indubitably illustrate that despite challenges to overcome, blockchain remains the foundational layer on which to build more secure Web3 gaming environments. Benefits of Blockchain Security for Players and Developers For Players: Confidence in true ownership of assets Transparency in in-game economies Protection against nefarious trades/scams For Developers: More trust between players and the platform Less reliance on centralized infrastructure Ability to attract wealth and players based on provable fairness By incorporating blockchain security within the mechanics of game design, developers can create and enforce resilient ecosystems where players feel reassured in investing time, money, and ownership within virtual worlds. The Future of Secure Web3 Gaming Ecosystems As the wisdom of blockchain technology and industry knowledge improves, the future for secure Web3 gaming looks bright. New growing trends include: Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs): A new wave of protocols that enable private transactions and secure smart contracts while managing user privacy with an element of transparency. Decentralized Identity Solutions (DID): Helping players control their identities and decrease account theft risks. AI-Enhanced Security: Identifying irregularities in user interactions by sampling pattern anomalies to avert hacks and fraud by time-stamping critical events. Interoperable Security Standards: Allowing secured and seamless asset transfers across blockchains and games. With these innovations, blockchain will not only secure gaming assets but also enhance the overall trust and longevity of Web3 gaming ecosystems. Conclusion Blockchain is more than a buzzword in Web3; it is the only way to host security, fairness, and transparency. With blockchain, players confirm immutable ownership of digital assets, there is a decentralized infrastructure, and finally, it supports smart contracts to automate code that protects players and developers from the challenges of digital economies. The threats, vulnerabilities, and scams that come from smart contracts still persist, but the industry is maturing with better security practices, cross-chain solutions, and increased formal cryptographic tools. In the coming years, blockchain will remain the base to digital economies and drive Web3 gaming environments that allow players to safely own, trade, and enjoy their digital experiences free from fraud and exploitation. While blockchain and gaming alone entertain, we will usher in an era of secure digital worlds where trust complements innovation. The Role of Blockchain in Building Safer Web3 Gaming Ecosystems was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story