TON Foundation announces trustless Bitcoin bridge

Telegram-based TON unveiled new infrastructure to tap into Bitcoin’s blockchain and expand BTC’s utility. 

Dubbed TON Teleport BTC, The Open Network (TON) Foundation announced the feature bridges Bitcoin (BTC) and unlocks greater operability for decentralized applications built on the Telegram-focused chain.

Although decentralized, most blockchains weren’t initially designed to communicate with each other. This phenomenon alienated standalone networks and created a divide with assets.

Networks like Ethereum (ETH) attempted to mitigate this issue by developing what is called the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This environment allowed anyone to build ETH-compatible tools and connect with Ethereum’s mainnet.

Bridges are another solution to the problem, allowing users and participants to ferry digital assets from one blockchain to another. TON Teleport BTC, as the name suggests, builds on this idea to improve liquidity and introduce crypto’s largest token to TON’s ecosystem.

According to the TON Foundation, the organization managing The Open Network, the bridge enables users to deploy BTC on native on-chain exchanges, lending platforms, and other popular defi platforms. 

The Open Network has grown exponentially this year with the rise of Telegram mini-games like Notcoin (NOT) and Hamster Kombat. Its native token ranks ninth among all digital assets, with a market cap of over $18 billion. In addition to directly accessing over 900 million global Telegram users, the blockchain reportedly reached 470,000 active wallets on Tuesday.