Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Sushi has achieved a milestone by incorporating native Bitcoin (BTC) support on its protocol through an expansion to ZetaChain.
As announced in a blog post on Thursday, Sushi’s move enables users to seamlessly swap BTC across 30 different networks without the need to “wrap” the coin as an ERC-20 token, as is commonly done on the Ethereum network.
ZetaChain, described as a layer 1 blockchain and developer platform, positions itself as the “only blockchain you’ll ever need.” Its Omnichain Smart Contracts facilitate cost-effective, efficient, and secure transfers of digital assets across various blockchain networks.
The blockchain platform ZetaChain has previously introduced the innovative ZRC-20 token standard, which facilitates the development of native cross-chain applications engaging in transactions with various tokens, including Bitcoin and Ethereum-based ERC-20 tokens.
The collaboration between Sushi and ZetaChain aims to usher in DeFi 3.0, providing users with a decentralized and permissionless approach to trading native BTC in the DeFi space for the first time.
This integration encompasses Sushi’s popular offerings, including the Sushi v2 automated market maker (AMM), v3 AMM, and SushiXSwap, the cross-chain swap solution. Users will now have the capability to swap native BTC across 30 networks, accessing previously untapped liquidity on the Bitcoin network.
‘A new chapter in DeFi’
In a statement, Jared Grey, Head Chef at Sushi, emphasized the groundbreaking nature of the collaboration, describing it as “a new chapter in DeFi, where we see more practical use cases of interoperability and enhanced connectivity.”
Jiro, the Lead Sushi Developer, highlighted ZetaChain’s compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), streamlining the integration process. He mentioned, “Using our existing Ethereum smart contracts on ZetaChain will create a lot of new use cases for Sushi. For example, with the introduction of SushiXSwap, our cross-chain swap, we’ll be able to offer Bitcoin swapping across 30 different chains.”
The team plans to initiate a decentralized exchange (DEX) on the ZetaChain testnet, with full functionality for Bitcoin interoperability set to launch on the mainnet.
