# The Future of Crypto is Interoperability By [Defi Isaac](https://paragraph.com/@iduo77) · 2025-03-19 --- When I first entered crypto, interoperability wasn't even a thought. Why? There were hundreds of dApps, countless wealth opportunities — mainly through NFTs — all emerging on a single chain. _Everything happened on Ethereum._ No one questioned paying absurd gas fees. In fact, “gas wars" were the norm. If you wanted to participate in hyped NFT launches, you had to understand them — and how to win. I still remember the frustration. Watching my MetaMask transaction sit pending while gas fees spiked past 2,000 gwei. Should I cancel and resubmit? Increase my bid? Within seconds, I was outpriced — transaction failed. The collection I was trying to mint had already been flipped for 10x on OpenSea. For most, paying 1 ETH (~$4000 USD) in gas just to flip a free mint for 1.1 ETH wasn’t crazy. It was just part of the game. **P is P 🤷‍♂️** But beneath the NFT chaos, something else was happening. New networks were emerging — Arbitrum, Polygon, Avalanche, and alongside them, the rise of Solana. Ethereum’s fees became unsustainable, and people started looking for alternatives. That’s when I first tried to bridge. In late 2021, I downloaded Phantom Wallet to mint an NFT on Solana, only to hit a roadblock: I had to bridge over assets from Ethereum. The onboarding flow was extremely clunky, I didn’t know how to navigate Solana’s explorer, and the overall bridging UX was confusing. Ultimately, I had given up and on-ramped more fiat instead. Fast forward to late 2022/early 2023, and I was back in crypto. Altcoins were slowly brewing and I wanted in. But this time, I ran into another issue — bridging into BNB. The only option I could find was the **Portal Token Bridge** by Wormhole and xLabs. It took 10 minutes to receive my tokens, and what I got was **wormhole-wrapped BNB** — which I couldn’t even swap because I didn’t have the native token. This was the problem with many early bridges; they were unable to facilitate native assets. They relied on **lock-and-mint** mechanisms, issuing wrapped versions of tokens instead of the real thing. **What I got wasn’t bridging — it was more like being handed a pedal boat and told to cross the ocean.** _We've come extremely far since then._ With L1s and L2s launching every other week, one thing has become clear: the real winner in this explosion of new chains isn’t any single network — **it’s interoperability**. More and more dApps are choosing to go multichain because one chain simply isn’t enough anymore. Just look at: * Uniswap, now supporting 10+ networks * Ethena, which recently launched on TON via Layer Zero * The rise of multichain trading platforms like Infinex, defi dot app, and Photon **Making the move to go multichain has never been easier.** Projects are continuously improving cross-chain infrastructure, with innovations like **Wormhole Settlement** enhancing UX through platforms like Mayan’s Swift while also enabling institutional-scale volume. **And institutions are taking notice.** Having players like **BlackRock** and **Apollo Global** enter the space was a pipe dream for many in 2020/21. But today, **Wormhole has achieved exactly that** — bringing Securitize into the ecosystem and opening access to liquidity across multiple chains. Further, **Securitize and Ethena** recently introduced their new institutional-grade blockchain, Converge, designed to bridge DeFi and traditional finance. Converge will serve as the issuance layer for tokenised financial products, including **BlackRock’s BUIDL fund**, which recently surpassed **$1 billion AUM**. Major DeFi protocols have already committed to distribute institutional-grade DeFi products on Converge: * Horizon by Aave: Bridging TradFi & DeFi with purpose-built markets for Securitize tokenised assets, including Ethena's institutional iUSDe * Pendle Institutional: Rate speculation infrastructure for scalable institutional opportunities like iUSDe * Morpho Labs: Modular money markets for Ethena and Securitize assets * Maple Finance and Syrup Fi: Verifiable on-chain institutional yield and credit products built on and for USDe and RWAs * Ethereal DEX: High-performance derivatives and spot trading built for Ethena liquidity with USDe collateral **Why is this bullish for Interoperability?** Over the next **6-12 months**, I see **RWAs and institutional adoption** becoming the **defining narrative for interoperability protocols**. Institutions aren’t here for speculative trading—they’re here for **yield, efficiency, and security**. And the biggest financial products of the next cycle won’t be isolated on a single chain—they’ll be **onchain, across multiple networks**. Converge solves the **security and compliance** piece, giving institutions a trusted framework to operate within. But accessing the **highest-yielding, most innovative DeFi products** — whether it’s RWAs, tokenised treasuries, or institutional stablecoin strategies — **requires interoperability**. This is where **Wormhole and LayerZero** come in. These protocols aren’t just allowing users to swap cross-chain — they’re **enabling institutions to move capital seamlessly** across ecosystems without ever leaving Converge’s institutional-grade layer. The **next wave of institutional adoption depends on this infrastructure.** The opportunity is no longer fragmented liquidity on single chains — it’s **seamless, cross-chain finance at scale**. \*"Cross-chain finance isn't the future — it's the foundation." \- \*Securitize Robinson Burkey, Co-Founder of Wormhole Foundation, had a great analogy for interoperability: it should function like a city's plumbing or electrical system — an invisible but critical infrastructure that keeps everything running. The goal of interoperability is to be this behind the scenes technology, so deeply embedded into crypto’s foundation that users don’t even notice it’s there. But what good is seamless infrastructure if assets remain siloed? Interoperability isn’t just about linking blockchains — it’s about enabling liquidity and value to flow freely across them. The old model of **wrapped assets and fragmented liquidity** is simply inefficient. The industry is shifting toward **multichain-native solutions** — designed to **seamlessly transfer assets across ecosystems without compromising security or liquidity.** Instead of relying on fragile bridging mechanisms, these solutions allow assets to move natively across chains, unlocking true cross-chain finance. Think of it like **bypass lanes in a congested city**. Rather than forcing assets to take unnecessary detours (wrapped tokens, liquidity fragmentation), **multichain-native tokens enable direct, frictionless movement across networks.** **_Wormhole’s NTT. The perfect example of this._** A flexible and composable, fully open-source solution created to **solve the issue of transferring tokens across blockchains**. This **permissionless configurable framework** provides integrators full customisability — control over token standards, metadata, ownership, and upgradeability. At its core is the **Global Accountant** mechanism — the **only explicit solution** designed to **maintain a synchronised and verifiable record of token movements.** By tracking every token burned, minted, or locked during transfers, it eliminates risks like **double counting, supply inflation, or accidental mismatches** — common vulnerabilities that have plagued traditional bridging methods. And Wormhole isn’t alone in this shift, other key players are enabling **seamless, omnichain asset movement** as well: Layer Zero’s OFT (Omnichain Fungible Token) * 70+ blockchains * Flexibile security configurations — token developers can select their own DVNs EntangleFi’s UTS (Universal Token Standard) * Seamless omnichain deployment * Unified liquidity * Enhanced customisation There’s no longer an excuse for fragmentation. The barriers are gone, the infrastructure is ready, and the biggest protocols are already expanding. If you’re building, why stay sidelined? Going multichain has never been easier than it is today. --- *Originally published on [Defi Isaac](https://paragraph.com/@iduo77/the-future-of-crypto-is-interoperability)*