'Wormhole' Launches for Connecting DeFi on BSC, Terra and Ethereum to Solana

Wormhole, a communication bridge between Solana and other top decentralized finance (DeFi) networks, began supporting inter-blockchain message transfers with a Monday mainnet launch.

In simple terms, the interoperability protocol will help crypto assets like tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and even price data, flow between blockchain networks that don’t usually talk to each other. Wormhole supports Terra, Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain at launch.

Wormhole opens a faster (and, developers claim, simpler) route for non-native assets to enter Solana’s bustling DeFi ecosystem. Projects like Serum, the decentralized exchange backed by FTX, could unlock added cross-chain liquidity through Wormhole, one source said.

Data can cross this “trustless bridge” in both directions, said Hendrik Hofstadt, the director of special projects at Jump Trading Group, a key backer of Solana-based DeFi data distribution network Pyth. He said Pyth’s price oracles can now deliver market data to other blockchains.

“At the same time, any project can make use of the message-passing to grow beyond a single chain,” he said.

Allowing different blockchains to communicate directly opens the door for all sorts of information flows. Even governance mechanisms like voting could slip across Solana’s Wormhole.

Wormhole’s 19 validators check if an asset is locked up on Chain A so that a copy of it can move freely on Chain B.

"We believe in an interchain future, and by creating an easy, scalable way to transport liquidity and messages across blockchains Wormhole presents a succinct and clear vision for that future," Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon said in a statement.