Top 7 Cross-Chain Themes to build on top of Wormhole

Cross-Chain Ideas to Explore Using Wormhole and Get $$ via Grants for Building Them.

‘Multi-chain is overrated; cross-chain is underrated’.

The number of blockchains is increasing daily, with ~30 now boasting over $100 million in TVL, depicting a multi-chain near-term future. Instead of apps being deployed on individual chains and remaining siloed, they should be able to deploy on one chain and communicate with other chains, ensuring the highest level of interoperability for users.

Wormhole is one of the top cross-chain messaging protocols that enables developers to build cross-chain apps. This includes cross-chain token bridges like Portalbridge that allow users to transfer tokens from one chain to another. It has facilitated:
- $35 billion+ in value transferred across chains
- 750 million+ messages sent
- 200+ apps built on top of Wormhole
- 30+ blockchains supported

All this has led Wormhole to raise $225 million at a whopping $2.5 billion after a series of private token sales, and the ecosystem is ready to explode! If you are new to Wormhole, we would recommend checking out Wormhole Deep Dive on our blog to get started.

Superteam has been one of the key contributors to the Wormhole Ecosystem via initiatives like Wormhole x Superteam grants, which has produced an amazing set of projects like Solana Bridge ($500k+ volume), Startonwormhole, and Wormscan.

To inspire builders to build the next big project, we are releasing a list of themes and ideas that can be developed using Wormhole:

1. Cross-chain Money Markets:

Enabling users to deposit assets as collateral on Chain A and borrow assets on Chain B.

Just like any lending/borrowing protocol (also known as Money Markets) provides liquidity for one asset by depositing another, this would function as a 'Universal Liquidity Protocol'. This will enable users to supply native assets on source chains and borrow native assets on destination chains without having to interact with cross-chain bridges or handle wrapped assets.

For instance, a user has SOL on Solana and wants to explore Sui. They would need SUI and USDC to use Sui dApps. Currently, they will have to either:

1. Multiple Swap — Sell their SOL for USDC, bridge it over via the Portal bridge, and then swap USDCso (Solana version of USDC) on Sui for USDC and SUI. This results in the loss of their SOL exposure and 3-4 additional steps.

2. Multiple Borrow/Lend — Lend SOL on a Solana lending/borrowing protocol like Solend, borrow USDC, bridge the USDC over, swap it, and then lend and borrow USDC on a Sui lending/borrowing protocol like Navi.

To simplify this process, cross-chain money markets would allow them to deposit SOL on Solana and borrow SUI and USDC on Sui based on the collateral ratio. This enables them to leverage assets cross-chain!

Wormhole also has a reference implementation for borrow/lend on EVM chains. One of the key projects building on this theme is — Pike Finance, built on top of Wormhole’s Cross-Chain Data Messaging and Circle’s CCTP; check them out for inspiration. Synonym is another project building on this theme on top of Wormhole.

2. Cross-chain Yield Aggregator:

Enables users to discover the best yields across multiple chains and invest from their preferred chain in universal assets like USDC or ETH.

Earning yield across chains is currently a clunky and fragmented process – involving searching, analyzing, bridging, swapping, depositing, claiming, and withdrawing, which is both laborious and complex. There's a clear opportunity to streamline this entire flow into a single, powerful yield interface where users can discover, access, and manage their yields. This offers:

1. Users — Single transaction access to yield vaults across chains using assets like USDC.

2. Protocols — Instant distribution of their vaults.

This would involve two primary modules:

1. Messaging – For transmitting yields across chains, utilizing Wormhole’s Cross-chain Reads (Wormhole Queries) for deposit and withdrawal data and Wormhole’s cross-chain messaging.

2. Liquidity – To facilitate the transfer of user funds from one chain to another, either bridge aggregators or Wormhole’s liquidity solutions can be employed.

The protocol flow would look like this: A user deposits USDC on Solana → The USDC is bridged to Arbitrum and deposited into Pendle → The user receives a tokenized yield position back on Solana.

Another adjacent idea to explore in this direction is Cross-Chain Staking or Cross-Chain Restaking, where one can stake their ETH (or wrapped ETH) or wrapped SOL from any chain.

3. Intent-based Cross-chain DEXs

Enable users to bridge native assets from Chain A to Chain B using Intents.

Popularised by UniswapX, Intents are the hottest topic in DEXs, where one expresses intent like "swap X on Chain A for Y on Chain B,” and can be executed by anyone in an arbitrary way. The current Portal bridge does not have the best UX, as users need to wrap, unwrap, and claim assets on destination chains, leading to gas inefficiency as well.

A cross-chain liquidity protocol can built on top of the Wormhole messaging layer, which finds liquidity in DEXs or uses off-chain solvers (think market makers) on connected chains so that users can initiate swaps with a single click. While liquidity will be sourced from different venues, the cross-chain messages of assets being received and deposited will be passed via Wormhole, which ensures high security.

A similar protocol, built on top of Wormhole, would be Mayan Finance, which uses auctions via DEX aggregators like Jupiter that settle on Solana. Another good example would be Hashflow, built on top of Wormhole.

Exploring cross-chain order books is another intriguing direction. This involves using Wormhole to synchronize on-chain order books across different chains.

4. Cross-Chain Token or Stablecoin Launchpad

Enable users to launch omni-chain tokens, such as stablecoins and meme-coins, across multiple chains.

For instance, one could launch stablecoins on a chain like Solana, backed by assets such as tokenized treasuries. Then, with the assistance of Wormhole’s assets, launch a wrapped version on 20+ other chains, ensuring interoperability with the main chain — via the Hub and Spoke Model.

For more details on how to issue a stablecoin on multiple chains using Wormhole — check out this blog written under Wormhole xGrants.

5. Cross-Chain NFTs

Enable users to mint omni-chain NFTs across multiple chains or migrate NFTs from one chain to another.

• Cross-chain NFT checkout: Suppose there is a Mad Lads mint, which requires users to bridge over SOL to Solana and then mint. What if users have the option to mint from any chain without bridging?

• Facilitate migrating NFTs like Degods migrated from Solana to Ethereum.

  

Check out Mintly and Merkly, which have implemented Mint and Bridge NFT using Wormhole for inspiration.

6. Existing dApp Integrations:

For existing apps in categories like DeFi or NFT, you can integrate Wormhole for numerous use cases, such as:

1. Governance: Cross-chain governance like Uniswap uses Wormhole for cross-chain governance.

2. Wormhole Connect: Integrating Wormhole Connect (stripe-like widget for cross-chain bridging) on the dApp frontends like Cetus.

3. On/Off-ramps: Fiat On/Off-ramps using Wormhole to enable users to deposit on any Wormhole-supported chains.

4. Cross-chain DeFi: DeFi protocols doing deeper integrations to go cross-chain and increase their TAM. For instance, Marginfi can also users to deposit collateral from Arbitrum. Another great example would be cross-chain perp DEXs using Wormhole Queries.

   

5. Gaming using xAssets: Having gaming assets like NFTs or tokens as xAssets, i.e., wrapping assets on multiple chains.

6. Cross-Chain Payments App: Similar to Sphere’s Wormhole integration, it allows anyone to pay from any chain and gives users a unified payment experience.

7. Bonus Ideas: Tooling

If you are looking to build some cool tools on top of Wormhole, here are some more ideas:

1. Ecosystem-specific: Just like The Solana Bridge enables one to bridge to and from Solana with the best user experience, building more ecosystem-specific frontends for chains like Sui, Sei, Cosmos, etc., helps in attracting a targeted user base and enhancing SEO discovery.

2. Cross-chain Deposit Addresses: For a game on Solana, developers can provide their users with deposit addresses for each chain. For instance, a user can deposit USDC from Avalanche, and it will automatically be deposited in the game’s Solana contract.

3. Automate Cross-Chain Actions with a Scheduler App: Automated contracts with triggers involving multiple chains. For example, a trigger condition could be to buy 10 SOLs at market price on Openbook (Solana’s Order Book DEX) if the price of ETH falls below $1,500, using USDC stored in an escrow contract on ETH, with an expiry date of May 21, 2024.

4. Create Cross-Chain Identity with a Chain-Agnostic Global Passport: Similar to a global passport, identity data such as KYC, reputation scores, transaction history, and credit scores should be interoperable and usable across all chains. Additionally, integrating naming systems would be beneficial. Imagine being able to log in with ENS on Solana!

Hint: What’s coming next for Wormhole

If you are a builder looking to develop any of these ideas – Superteam is supporting the Wormhole grants program, where you can receive a quick grant of up to $10,000 for building anything on top of Wormhole and getting your MVP off the ground!

Apply now — Wormhole Superteam xGrants

It hardly takes ~5-10 mins to fill out the application, and you will get the approval/rejection within ~72 hours!

Feel free to DM me (@yashhsm on Twitter) if you are even remotely interested in building any of these — I will assist you in any way I can to help you get all the resources and ship the product.