Avalanche Announces Bitcoin Bridge, New Wallet; Coinbase Cloud Launches Avalanche Developer Tools Suite

 

The Avalanche (AVAX) Bridge, which enables the transfer of ERC20 tokens from Ethereum (ETH) to Avalanche’s C-Chain and vice versa, has expanded support for the Bitcoin (BTC) network, unlocking the opportunity for the trillion-dollar asset to join the Avalanche’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

In simple terms, the bridge would provide Bitcoin holders with a way to transfer their BTC holding to the Avalanche public blockchain, which can then be put to work within Avalanche’s DeFi ecosystem.

According to Avalanche, its bridge has become the most popular Ethereum-connected bridge with over USD 6bn in total valued locked (TVL) and has facilitated the transfer of over USD 43bn in assets between Avalanche and Ethereum since its launch in July 2021.

“The Avalanche Bridge has established a seamless, secure, and low-fee rail for users of all sizes to explore Avalanche and the rapidly growing ecosystem of applications on the platform,” Nick Mussallem, Head of Product at Ava Labs, the team behind Avalanche, was quoted as saying.

In an attempt to further simplify the user experience, Avalanche has announced its browser extension and mobile wallet. 

Dubbed ‘Core’, the wallet is teased as a free, non-custodial wallet tailor-made for applications on Avalanche, including subnets and the next generation of Web 3 projects.

The wallet is expected to go live in two phases: 

• the first phase, which includes the launch of the Core browser extension, is slated to arrive in late March;
• the second phase is the launch of the Core mobile application, set to come in early Q2.

Mussallem argued that Core is not just a wallet, but “a curated, Web3 operating system,” as well as “the culmination of extensive user and product research to understand how we can facilitate mass-adoption of Web3 systems.”

Avalanche’s Core wallet is announced after ConsenSys, the firm behind the popular Ethereum and Web 3 wallet MetaMask, announced it raised USD 450m at a valuation of over USD 7bn.

Meanwhile, Coinbase Cloud, which provides Web 3 application programming interfaces (APIs), services, and infrastructure to developers, has rolled out a new suite of infrastructure tools and solutions to support development on the Avalanche blockchain and smart contract platform.

As part of the new feature, Coinbase Cloud is running a public validator that allows delegators to easily and securely stake their AVAX. Delegators need to stake a minimum of AVAX 25 (USD 2,120) to get started.

“The Coinbase Cloud team offers the technical expertise, security best practices, and deep understanding of protocols that will make them one of the important contributors to Avalanche,” Jay Kurahashi-Sofue, VP of marketing at Ava Labs, commented.

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Learn more: 
– Avalanche Foundation Launches Avalanche Multiverse
– Ethereum Fee Debate Heats Up as Avalanche Enters and Exits Top 10
– USD 200M Avalanche

–  Coinbase Pay and Binance Pay: What Are These Solutions & How Do They Differ
– Coinbase Launches Subscription-Based ‘Zero-Fee’ Trading in Beta