Question 1

Are cross-chain bridges safe in 2026?

Accepted Answer

In 2026, cross‑chain bridges are far safer than during their 2021–2022 exploit peak, but they remain historically the most‑hacked category in DeFi with ~$2.5B lost across major incidents.

Question 2

What's the cheapest way to bridge stablecoins between L2s?

Accepted Answer

For Ethereum L2 moves, Across and Stargate are typically the low-friction options in 2026, with fees in the tens of basis points and settlement times of seconds to minutes.

Question 3

How do I move USDC from Ethereum to Solana?

Accepted Answer

Three reasonable paths in 2026. (a) Wormhole with Circle's CCTP integration (b) Squid via handles the swap-and-bridge in a single transaction when you have a non-USDC source token. (c) An instant-swap aggregator like ChangeNOW.

Question 4

What happens to my funds if a bridge gets hacked while my transfer is in transit?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the bridge architecture and the hack. In a lock-and-mint bridge hack, in-transit funds and outstanding wrapped tokens may be affected. In a liquidity-network bridge, an in-transit transfer that hasn't been claimed yet may be recoverable from the source-chain escrow.

Question 5

Do I need to pay gas on both chains when bridging?

Accepted Answer

Usually, yes for traditional bridges — you pay gas on the source chain to initiate, and you may need to pay gas on the destination chain to claim or move the bridged asset. Modern bridges include destination gas in the quoted fee.

Across

Best Cross-Chain Bridges to Watch in 2026

One sharp brief.
Every day.

Across

Best Cross-Chain Bridges to Watch in 2026

One sharp brief.Every day.

One sharp brief.
Every day.