MetaMask, a well-known self-custodial wallet, has now released a bridge aggregator that enables users to bridge across many blockchain networks. This news was made official through the Twitter platform on 9 November on the official Twitter handle of MetaMask.
According to the company’s official blog post “MetaMask Bridges is a bridge aggregator to help you find the best routes to move your tokens from one chain to another.” Further adding that use the MetaMask Bridges to source the optimal path based on where you want to go and what you want to bring with you, rather than needing to search many bridges.
The Metamask bridge presently allows the bridging of native gas tokens, major stablecoins, and transfers of up to $10,000 worth of ether and wrapped ether (wETH). Major Ethereum Virtual Machines (EVM) like Ethereum, Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), and Polygon is also supported by the bridge. It is planned to add support for additional EVM networks like Optimism and Arbitrum in the future.
Metamask decided to connect with two bridge aggregates, Socket and LI.FI, out of the two types of bridge providers—bridge aggregators and individual aggregators. The cryptocurrency wallet declared that it would enable individual bridges starting with suppliers like Connext, Hop, Celar cBridge, and Polygon Bridge through these two bridge aggregators.
Features of MetaMask’s Bridge Aggregator
In addition to the supported blockchain networks, MetaMask users can transfer tokens between blockchain networks using the bridge feature without researching or selecting a trustworthy bridge.
All MetaMask users have access to the new bridge feature in the beta version of the Portfolio dApp, a brand-new decentralized application (DApp) that was released in September. It enables users to view all of their non-fungible tokens (NFT) and cryptos in one location.
According to Metamask, the Portfolio Dapp is a single Dapp experience. It connects widely-used chains in addition to letting you examine all of your assets in one location.
With this feature, even users who do not have MetaMask accounts will be able to access Portfolio View. However, by using the “watch any account” option, despite the fact that connecting to the dapp only works for MetaMask users.
This includes the “Watch Any Wallet” which is a feature of the dApp. This enables users to add their offline or hardware wallets as well as their friends’ ENS domains or public addresses to their watchlists. Seven alternative networks are now supported by the Portfolio dApps. It includes Ethereum, Optimism, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, Fantom, Abritrum, and Avalanche.
MetaMask also cleared that there will be no costs for bridging crypto transactions during the beta period. The platform wants to include Layer 2 chains like Optimism and Arbitrum in its coverage area.
Up to now, MetaMask has released a selected number of technologies that improve communication across blockchain networks and asset tracking. A new Non-Fungible Token (NFT) portfolio tracking service was introduced by the non-custodial wallet provider earlier this month. It is powered by NFTBank, a platform for managing NFT portfolios and a valuation engine.
Last Words
In 2022 only, the crypto bridge hack led to a loss of $2 billion. This loss was around 70% of total hacks that happened this year up to now. Even the BNB chain became the victim of such hacks and ended up losing $570 Million worth of BNB tokens. Even last year a loss of $1 billion was seen because of the crypto hacks.
With the advancement and better technology, better security was expected but hackers are also advancing with that. Considering this, MetaMask assured its users that they have chosen the best bridge providers after carefully evaluating an extensive vetting process.
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