Bridging Bitcoin: How BTC Is Finally Going Cross-Chain

TL;DR 

• Native BTC can now be used in DeFi without wrapping;

• Real infrastructure is here – and growing fast;

• User experience is finally catching up to the tech.

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For years, Bitcoin has been DeFi’s sleeping giant – trillions in market cap, but effectively walled off from the rest of crypto. 

Unlike Ethereum, Solana, or other smart contract platforms, Bitcoin wasn't built for interoperability or programmability. It simply didn’t play well with others.

That’s where bridging comes in. Without some form of cross-chain movement, BTC is stuck, unable to interact with lending protocols, DEXs, stablecoins, or any of the tools that make crypto usable beyond speculation. 

Early solutions, such as wBTC, tried to patch this with custodial wrapping – locking BTC on one chain to mint synthetic versions on another. But these were trust-heavy, often inefficient, and a poor fit for Bitcoin's ethos.

In 2025, that’s changing. New bridging solutions and sidechain technologies are letting native BTC move between chains without centralized custody or full-on wrapping. This opens the door to something long overdue: real Bitcoin in real DeFi.

The Dawn of BTCFI 

BTCFi – short for Bitcoin Finance – is the emerging world of decentralized finance that actually uses Bitcoin itself, not a placeholder version of it. Beyond advancements in Bitcoin’s programmability (think Taproot, Layer 2s, and sidechains), BTC now has a newfound agility thanks to modern bridging solutions.

As a result, users can provide liquidity to DEXs that support native BTC, stake BTC or rBTC on yield protocols, use BTC as collateral in lending markets without needing to port it to Ethereum, and even participate in synthetic stablecoins and perpetuals on Bitcoin-native DeFi rails.

According to Binance Research, the total value locked (TVL) in BTCFi protocols has surged 2,767% throughout 2024 and into 2025. That kind of growth doesn’t happen by accident – it signals that serious infrastructure is finally in place.

Approaches to Unwrapping BTC

Here’s a look at where BTC bridging stands today.

THORChain is a decentralized exchange protocol focused on native asset settlement including BTC, ETH, and BNB without the need for wrapping or intermediaries. 

THORChain is the original DeFi protocol for native cross-chain swaps with a live mainnet since 2021 – built from the ground up for native asset settlement. Instead of wrapping and bridging, users swap native Layer 1 assets directly, with no intermediaries. THORChain achieves this using its own Tendermint-based appchain and a unique architecture of cross-chain observations and decentralized vaults secured by Threshold Signature Schemes (TSS). RUNE, the native asset, powers settlement across all pools and acts as the bonding asset for validators—ensuring liquidity depth, pricing efficiency, and security.

Under the hood, THORChain runs the largest open-validator TSS vaults in production. Node operators must bond RUNE to join the validator set, with rotating membership to create a truly decentralized and capture resistant validator set with an adherence to economic security to reduce risk of validator collusion. The protocol currently supports native swaps across Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Base and more.

Chainflip is a decentralized, cross-chain exchange purpose-built for seamless, native asset swaps – without the need for wrapping. 

Built on its own appchain, Chainflip employs the FROST (Flexible Round-Optimized Schnorr Threshold) signature scheme, enabled by Taproot, to securely bridge Bitcoin with EVM and non-EVM chains.

The protocol combines a Uniswap v3-style AMM with RFQ functionality to offer just-in-time liquidity and optimal capital efficiency. This hybrid model enables low-slippage swaps at competitive prices, regardless of trade size. Unique to Chainflip is a swap acceleration feature that reduces Bitcoin settlement times by up to 75%, significantly improving UX. Liquidity providers earn native BTC yield, and the platform’s validator-based architecture ensures secure, trustless operations.

Rootstock is the first-ever Bitcoin layer-2 to bring smart contract capabilities to BTC. 

BTC moves in and out as rBTC, a 1:1 representation locked and released by the protocol. It’s not wrapping in the Ethereum sense – rBTC is native to Rootstock and unlocks DeFi on a Bitcoin-secured chain. Merge-mined for security and EVM-compatible for devs, Rootstock blends Bitcoin’s security with Ethereum-style programmability. Think BTC, but with dApps.

It’s also worth noting that in late 2023, BitVMX, a project launched by researchers from RootstockLabs, a core contributor to the growth of Rootstock, and Fairgate Labs, pushed the boundaries of what’s possible on Bitcoin. By enabling off-chain computation and fraud proofs secured by Bitcoin, BitVMX lets developers deploy advanced logic without altering Bitcoin’s base layer. It’s Ethereum-style programmability, but anchored to BTC’s security. Paired with native bridges like Symbiosis and smart-contract platforms like Rootstock, the result is powerful: BTC that computes.

BitVM is a concept framework that brings smart contract logic to Bitcoin itself, without changing its base layer. 

Inspired by the way optimistic rollups work, it lets you run complex computations off-chain and verify them on-chain through fraud proofs. No forks, no trust assumptions – just math.

Instead of relying on multisigs or wrapped assets, BitVM-based bridges only need one honest participant to stay secure. That’s a real step forward – building Bitcoin-native apps that can talk to Ethereum, Solana, or any other chain, without compromising on decentralization.

It’s still early days for the framework, but the direction is clear: BitVM turns Bitcoin into more than money. It becomes programmable, composable, and finally part of the wider DeFi stack.

Symbiosis.finance is one of the few protocols to offer true Native Bitcoin bridging – BTC in, token out. 

The bridge supports routes to and from major networks like Ethereum, BNB Chain, ZKsync, and Bitcoin sidechains such as Merlin and Rootstock. 

For users, it feels like a direct swap: choose BTC, pick the asset you want on another chain, and hit confirm. Behind the scenes, a decentralized network of Relayers, BTC Forwarders, and the Symbiosis BTC Portal handle the heavy lifting.

Here’s how it works:

1. The BTC Portal, deployed on Bitcoin, is a client-side validated smart contract that locks incoming BTC via threshold signatures (TSS).

2. The Relayers Network (a decentralized peer-to-peer system) watches the Bitcoin blockchain and validates transactions. Once confirmed, it triggers the next step.

3. The BTC Forwarder steps in to execute the user’s intent, enabling Bitcoin wallets (which can’t run smart contracts) to still interact with cross-chain operations.

4. In most routes, syBTC (a wrapped version on BNB chain) is minted temporarily to facilitate the swap, but the user never sees it. It's just a routing mechanism – the final asset arrives as the token they requested, on the network they chose.

The whole process takes just minutes! Fees are low, slippage is minimal, and critically – you don’t need to manually switch networks, wrap tokens, or manage multiple wallets.

Regarding security, the Symbiosis bridge has been audited by Decurity, and operates without centralized custody. 

Where It’s All Going

WIth effective BTC bridging solutions becoming the standard, we’re heading toward a world where:

• Native Bitcoin swaps become the standard, not the exception;

• Smart routing protocols and abstracted UX make bridging feel like a single-chain experience;

• Yield generation, trading, and DeFi participation happen directly with BTC, not derivatives;
  Security assumptions improve as more protocols adopt threshold cryptography and fraud-proof mechanisms;

• And Bitcoin-native ecosystems mature, with more dApps, dev tooling, and liquidity flowing in.

The line between Bitcoin and the rest of crypto is fading. Cross-chain protocols, like those mentioned, are stitching together entirely new financial terrain. 

Final Thoughts 

Bitcoin was always the vault. What BTCFi brings is velocity – the ability to move, interact, and compound.

For over a decade, Bitcoin stood apart: foundational, powerful, but largely inert in the context of modern crypto applications. Now, with native bridging, layer-2 innovation, and smart contract integrations, that’s changing fast.

The future of BTC is definitely bigger than traditional HODLing. It's about earning yield, providing liquidity, enabling loans, minting stablecoins, and participating in an internet-native financial system. 

In short – Bitcoin is waking up.