Why Across
Why Across is the fastest, cheapest, and most secure crosschain interoperability protocol.
This page is being expanded with detailed comparisons and benchmarks. Key points are outlined below.
Speed
Across delivers sub-2-second fills on mainnet through a competitive relayer network. Relayers front capital on the destination chain, so users don't wait for finality or message passing.
Cost
Across's aggregated settlement model (O(1) cost per bundle, not per fill) keeps fees low. The protocol batches all fills into a single settlement bundle every ~1.5 hours, amortizing gas costs across all users.
Security
Across has had zero security exploits since launch. The security model combines:
- Optimistic verification with UMA's Optimistic Oracle — bundles are accepted unless challenged
- Economic bonds — proposers stake capital that can be slashed for invalid bundles
- Only one honest actor needed — a single honest dispute is enough to reject a bad bundle
- V4 ZK proofs — Succinct/SP1 zero-knowledge proofs provide cryptographic settlement verification
Settlement Innovation
Three distinct settlement mechanisms optimize for different transfer types:
| Mechanism | Best For | Key Advantage |
|---|---|---|
| Intents | Most transfers | ~2 second fills via relayer competition |
| CCTP V2 / CCTPFast | Large USDC (up to $10M) | No relayer capital needed, native USDC |
| OFT | USDT0 transfers | Native mint-and-burn, no wrapped tokens |
Chain Coverage
23+ mainnet chains and 8 testnet chains, including first-mover support for:
- Solana
- MegaETH
- Plasma
- Monad
- Hyperliquid (HyperCore + HyperEVM)
Integration Simplicity
One API call to bridge across any supported chain. The Swap API handles:
- Mechanism selection (intents vs CCTP vs OFT)
- Token routing and swaps
- Gas estimation
- Approval transaction generation
No need to understand the underlying settlement — just call /swap/approval and execute the returned calldata.