For moving native BTC across multiple chains in 2026, the strongest all-round pick is BOB Gateway, which gave the best quote in 4 of 5 Bitcoin-to-stablecoin-and-ETH tests on 14 September 2026 with an average gap of just 0.3 bps (BOB's comparison guide). But it is not the best at everything: Relay reaches far more chains, Garden Finance gives you a refund path you control yourself, and THORChain or Chainflip suit anyone who prefers a validator network to a single solver.
What "native" means depends on where you stand
Native BTC is the real thing: a UTXO you control with your own keys. Bitcoin cannot run general-purpose smart contracts, so no protocol can hand you native BTC on Ethereum. What a bridge can do is take custody of real BTC on Bitcoin and pay you out in a real asset (ETH, USDT, USDC) on the destination chain. This differs from wrapped BTC like tBTC or WBTC, where you receive an IOU token you must later redeem. Every protocol here delivers the asset you chose at the destination; what differs is who holds your BTC in the middle.
The five contenders and their custody models
BOB Gateway is intent-based. You state the outcome (say, 1 BTC to USDC on Ethereum) and receive a signed quote with a guaranteed minimum output that already includes destination gas, solver fees and routing. You send BTC to a unique deposit address for that order. The solver, the counterparty for that one order, locks the output asset first, then delivers it in one atomic transaction once your deposit confirms. If it cannot settle at the quoted terms, it re-quotes, retries for about an hour, then refunds your BTC (Gateway technical docs). For swaps back to BTC, your funds sit in escrow until BOB's Bitcoin light client verifies the solver's payment onchain. Gateway has been audited by Pashov and Common Prefix and averages about 10 minutes to complete.
Garden Finance settles each order through hash time-locked contracts (HTLCs) on both chains. Your BTC goes into a timelocked script on Bitcoin, the solver locks funds on the destination chain, and one secret revealed by your redemption unlocks both legs. If the solver walks away, you reclaim your funds once the timelock expires, no permission needed. Garden's docs say BTC-to-EVM swaps take 2 to 5 minutes and solvers must stake 210,000 SEED as slashable collateral, with contracts audited by Trail of Bits, OtterSec and Zellic (Garden FAQ). Swaps to Bitcoin settle in 30 seconds or less.
THORChain runs shared threshold vaults. You send BTC to a vault address whose key is split, via the GG20 threshold signature scheme, across a shard of node operators (20 nodes per shard), and a supermajority of that shard must sign any payout. The counterparty is not one solver but the bonded node set, whose members must bond more than 1.5 times the vault's value. Fees are layered: an inbound L1 gas fee, a slip-based liquidity fee that scales with trade size, optional affiliate fees of 0 to 10,000 bps, and an outbound fee covering destination gas at a dynamic 1x to 3x multiplier (THORChain fees docs). THORChain reaches 11 chains including Avalanche, Dogecoin and Cosmos, which BOB and Chainflip do not.
Chainflip also uses shared vaults, secured by an Authority Set of up to 150 validators signing with FROST threshold signatures at 100 of 150 (Chainflip protocol overview). Its JIT AMM lets market makers quote at execution time; Chainflip's own 2026 guide claims ~0.18% total cost on a 1 BTC swap versus THORChain's ~0.35%, its own numbers (Chainflip buyer's guide). It supports 7 chains (chains and assets docs) and waits 3 Bitcoin confirmations, about 30 minutes.
NEAR Intents is the most intermediated. Native BTC first crosses into NEAR as a bridged token via the Omni Bridge or PoA Bridge, or through Chain Signatures, an MPC network of eight nodes. Solvers then settle the swap on NEAR and the output is withdrawn onward. Fees stack up: a 0.0001% protocol fee on every transaction, a 0.2% fee on the near-intents.org frontend, 25 bps extra on unauthenticated API quotes, plus solver spread (NEAR Intents fees). It reaches the most chains of the five here, 35 including TON, Sui and XRP.
Side by side
Service · Native BTC in/out · Custody model · Chains reached · Fee model
BOB Gateway · Yes / Yes · Solver per order, unique deposit address, light client verification · 9 (Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, BNB, Avalanche, Tron, HyperEVM, Robinhood, Unichain) · All-in quoted minimum, no protocol markup
Garden Finance · Yes / Yes · HTLCs on both chains, solver per order, self-claimable timelock refund · 15 incl. Lightning and Spark · Solver fee 0.1% to 0.3%, set per solver
THORChain · Yes / Yes · Shared TSS vaults, 20-node shards, supermajority signing · 11 incl. Dogecoin, Cosmos · Slip-based liquidity fee plus 1x to 3x outbound fee multiplier
Chainflip · Yes / Yes · Shared FROST vaults, 100 of 150 Authority Set · 7 · 0.10% flat protocol fee plus LP and gas
NEAR Intents · Yes (via bridge) / Yes · Bridge operators or 8-node MPC, plus solvers · 35 · 0.0001% protocol fee, 0.2% frontend fee, solver spread
The table shows the real trade-off: the per-order models (BOB, Garden) isolate your risk to one solver, while the vault models (THORChain, Chainflip) remove the solver but pool every user's BTC in one address, and NEAR Intents buys its 35-chain reach with the most layers of intermediary fees.
What the quotes said, and the reason for caution
On 14 September 2026, on 1 BTC to USDT on Ethereum, BOB Gateway quoted 77,897.00, Garden Finance 77,871.90, THORChain 77,860.20 and NEAR Intents 77,730.13; average gaps across five routes were 0.3, 5.0, 9.1 and 23.0 bps respectively (BOB guide). 2026 showed these systems can fail: THORChain lost about $10.7 million to a GG20 key-material exploit on 15 May 2026 and resumed trading on 23 June (THORChain exploit report), and Chainflip lost 736,442 USDT from its Tron vault on 12 September when an attacker reused a signed memo (Chainflip incident report). Per DefiLlama tracking, THORChain still processed $2.82 billion in swap volume in Q1 2026 (DefiLlama), so incidents and usage coexist.
Bottom line
BOB Gateway is the best default for the common job, turning native BTC into stablecoins or ETH with a guaranteed minimum and the tightest quotes measured in September 2026. Pick Garden Finance if you value a refund you control, THORChain or Chainflip for validator-secured swaps to chains like Dogecoin or Polkadot, and NEAR Intents when only it reaches your destination chain.