From Bitcoin to Solana: Bridgeless DeFi protocol expands crosschain BTC swaps

Bitcoin's expansion to the Solana ecosystem arrives without custody, bridges or wrapped assets, ensuring secure crosschain interactions.

Portal to Bitcoin, a bridgeless crosschain infrastructure, announces the expansion of its atomic swaps to the Solana blockchain to enable trustless BTC-SOL swaps.

No other network comes close to Bitcoin when it comes to robustness and security. However, it has a catch: The massive liquidity circulating within the Bitcoin blockchain stays largely isolated from the rest of decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystems due to technical limitations.

As Bitcoin remains the most secure and valuable digital asset, its liquidity has often been difficult to tap for fast-growing ecosystems like Solana and Ethereum. Different blockchains usually require costly or complex bridging methods — involving custodial risk or wrapped assets — to access Bitcoins liquidity.

Breaking down blockchain barriers

Portal to Bitcoin is a bridgeless, non-custodial, crosschain infrastructure that offers an innovative solution to the limitations that have kept Bitcoins liquidity locked away from broader DeFi applications. Following a successful rollout of trustless Bitcoin-to-Ethereum swaps in its testnet, Portal to Bitcoin has announced that it will expand its swap services to Solana.

Once rolled out, the Portal Testnet V2 will enable users to swap Bitcoin (BTC) into Solana (SOL) and Solana Program Library (SPL) assets without turning to centralized intermediaries, wrapped assets or traditional bridging solutions.

Interoperability enables Bitcoin to be more than a store of value, enriching its role in DeFi, boosting adoption, and spurring innovation.

The problem？ Trusting middlemen to shuttle BTC across blockchains.

This is where Portal steps in!

— Portal (@PortaltoBitcoin) March 7, 2025

Unlike many crosschain approaches that add complexity or impose custody risks, Portal‘s new integration maintains full user control throughout the transaction process. This means holders never relinquish ownership of their BTC while swapping into Solana’s high-throughput ecosystem, which boasts near-instant transaction finality and notably low fees.

In practical terms, Bitcoin holders can soon engage directly with popular Solana-based decentralized exchanges (DEXs), lending protocols, memecoins and even NFT marketplaces, expanding the range of potential use cases for their BTC, while being able to safely swap back right into native BTC without taking any bridge, smart contract or custody risks.

Integrating Bitcoin to Solana: Why it matters

Solana‘s appeal lies in its ability to process thousands of transactions per second with minimal cost. By tapping into Bitcoin’s liquidity pool, Portals integration has the potential to drive greater DeFi adoption on Solana.

Developers and liquidity providers stand to benefit from broader user participation, while retail and institutional investors gain a more straightforward avenue to diversify into the Solana ecosystem. At the same time, it removes the need for offchain custodial services or crosschain bridges, vaults, multi-sigs and other custodial solutions, all of which have proven vulnerable in the past.

Trustless BTC-SOL swaps via proprietary technology

From a technical standpoint, Portal leverages its proprietary BitScaler technology to facilitate atomic swaps directly between BTC and SOL. Unlike many crosschain platforms that rely on multisignature bridges or wrapped assets, BitScaler leverages the implementation of a Channel Factory, modified with other advanced features such as Taproot, policy language, multiparty-HTLCs and others to make a native AMM possible on Bitcoin.

Operating as a true crosschain state channel/payment channel scaling framework built on Bitcoin, BitScaler allows multiple transactions to be processed efficiently without modifying Bitcoins base protocol.

BitScaler‘s modified channel factory design enables multiple peer-to-peer channels from a single onchain transaction, further reducing onchain fees compared to Lightning while keeping LP funds and traders’ funds safe and non-custodial. This hub-and-spoke design also helps mitigate liquidity fragmentation by pooling resources in a shared channel system, thereby reducing transaction costs and increasing throughput for DeFi users across multiple networks.

“With BitScaler, weve not only solved the long-standing challenges of Bitcoin scaling but have also opened up new possibilities for the entire ecosystem. This is the future of decentralized finance on Bitcoin,” said Chandra Duggirala, CEO of Tides.Network, Inc., the core developer of Portal to Bitcoin.

Security without compromise

Portal‘s methodology prioritizes decentralization and user control. Rather than relying on a governance token for security, the platform focuses on trustless, policy-based transaction scripts designed to uphold Bitcoin’s core principles.

In addition, Portal employs Merkle tree synchronization and Partially Signed Bitcoin Transactions (PSBTs) that carry extra metadata, ensuring all parties remain aligned throughout the process. By removing custodial intermediaries and maintaining end-user autonomy, Portal addresses many pitfalls observed in past crosschain protocols that introduced unnecessary vulnerabilities.

Implications for broader DeFi and NFT markets

For Bitcoin holders, Portals integration promises speedier transactions, lower costs and access to a growing suite of Solana-based applications. They can trade BTC directly on Solana-native decentralized exchanges, NFT marketplaces and lending protocols without relying on centralized platforms. This ease of movement could significantly expand liquidity across both Bitcoin and Solana ecosystems.

Developers also stand to benefit from Portal‘s software development kit (SDK) to integrate native BTC swaps into their Solana-based projects without handling cumbersome bridging processes. That opens the door to more seamless application building and crosschain protocols that draw on Bitcoin’s liquidity.

Liquidity providers may find new revenue streams by facilitating BTC-SOL-ETH swaps in a trustless environment. Portals hub-and-spoke model optimizes capital efficiency while minimizing risk, creating attractive opportunities for stakeholders on multiple blockchains.

Beyond Solana — a multichain vision

Though the immediate focus is on Solana, Portal has broader plans for a universal liquidity layer that encompasses Ethereum and other major networks. By enabling BTC, ETH, Solana and assets issued on those chains and others to be seamlessly swappable with each other, Portal aims to reduce fragmentation in DeFi, where more than 70 chains currently host meaningful activity.

Future expansions aim to further unify liquidity and streamline crosschain interactions, ensuring that Bitcoins vast market cap can be accessed securely and efficiently on any blockchain.

Backed by Web3 heavyweights

Portal to Bitcoin has attracted significant attention from industry households, resulting in more than $42.5 million in funding. Notable backers include Coinbase Ventures, Arrington XRP Capital, OKX, Republic.co and high-profile individuals from projects like Ethereum, Dfinity, Tether, Galaxy Digital and Blockstream.

Beyond financial investment, Portal has built strategic alliances with multiple DeFi players and blockchain protocols — including Bitlayer, Sovryn, Tari, Babylon, Stacks and Rootstock — to foster collaborative innovation.

Testing and launch roadmap

Portals Solana integration is slated to roll out on Testnet V2 for public participation. Users can check the official page for more information. Early testers will be able to evaluate real-world performance and security features, earning community incentives along the way. The testing phase will focus on ensuring seamless transactions, fortifying security measures and confirming network efficiency.

Once these tests confirm stability and reliability, Portal plans a full-scale launch that will seamlessly merge Bitcoin‘s unparalleled security with Solana’s high-speed infrastructure — potentially accelerating innovation across the broader DeFi landscape by making BTC liquidity more readily available.