Portal, the fifth-largest bridge solution by token deposits, saw its total value locked (TVL) surpass the $3 billion mark on September 20 for the first time since May 2022, according to data from DefiLlama.
Portal is a Wormhole-based bridge solution that supports 24 chains, including Ethereum, Solana, BNB Smart Chain (BSC), Near, Aptos, Avalanche, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Sui. Wormhole is one of the most popular interoperability protocols that enables the transfer of tokens and data across various blockchain networks.
Bridges are one of the easiest ways to achieve cross-chain communication. However, they are also the most vulnerable element in decentralized finance (DeFi). For instance, the amount of stolen crypto surged to a record high in 2022, and bridges were the weakest point at the time, accounting for nearly 70% of all crypto stolen, according to a Chainalysis report.
In February 2022, Portal (Wormhole) suffered one of the biggest hacks in crypto, when $320 million worth of Ethereum was stolen from the bridge’s deposits.
Portal was further affected by the collapse of the infamous UST stablecoin and the sister Luna coin. The bridge’s TVL dropped from a record $4.61 billion to less than $550 million within a month. The platform recovered to the $1 billion mark in TVL only in 2024, and the metric has gained over 300% year-to-date.
While Portal supports over 20 chains, Ethereum accounts for about 90% of all TVL. At its record high in 2022, Solana held the lion’s share, but its TVL has declined to $122 million, which still makes it the second-largest chain on Portal.
Interestingly, Render’s native token, RNDR, accounts for over 56% of all token deposits for cross-chain migration. Render’s domination is explained by its token upgrade. Holders of the ERC-20 RNDR token are encouraged to migrate to Solana-based RENDER, which requires them to first bridge RNDR from Polygon to the Ethereum mainnet.
Last week, the Portal bridge saw the highest daily inflows this year, when over $600 million worth of tokens were deposited.
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